Proyect Matrix
by Ireth-Tasartir
Summary: Izzy dissapears. His daughter goes searching for him, but, upon having an encounter with a boy called Takeru, she discovers their kind are hated. Will Mizumi gain his heart while he still loves Hikari?
1. The End of the Project

An agile hand rubbed the sweat that trickled down the wrikled forhead with a frown of worry written all over the fine features. Black eyes behind a pair of small, round glasses glimmered with the flashing green light that irradiated from the computer screen at which he was working. A dim light coming from a small table lamp and the continuous and intermitent glitters of irradiating bright light where the only source that illuminated the pale white office, lack of homey and cozy feeling floated in the completely vast and loose athmopshere. If one was to see the enormous mirror like building that united the whole structure of offices which composed the InSysMat-X company, a very famous company of informatics, you would only see the faint glimmer coming from the window at the last floor. The building towered over the city, it's enormous shadow standing proud against the tall and vast sky, it's chest inflating with strength over the much smaller building that cowered under it. Yet Izumi Koushiro payed little attention to such minor details, for his whole attention was focused on the glimmer of the computer.

"I'm so close" murmurred Izumi calmly staring with attention at the sequence of fantastic characters in a continuous order forming a complicated sequence, most of which nobody had ever seen.

"I must find out how to get out, it's all I need, I've got all info about it, enough investigation, there is just one thing I must do! Wake up!" his mouth emmited this words in inaudible whispers and mumbles, while his hands raced across the keyboard with the speed of gazelles galloping across the savanhas.

The screen flickered lightly, like the small and weak flame of a small candle when a gentle breeze blows through it, and before Izumi could realize or analize the situation the monitor's glass had turned a deep, penetrating black, his CPU blocked completely to control. The expert programer gasped without understanding the incoherent behaviour of his computer, "what are you doing now?" his voice, hoarse to lack of use, exclaimed in a retoric question. He typed around the keyboard yet his results were pretty much nule, and negative, his hopeless situation becoming a frustration torwards the free will of the computer.

"hello Izzy!" typed his screen in green letters, the caligraphy none like that which he had ever seen, and the understanding evolved more into conffusion.

"who are you?" Izzy typed, realizing it was very stupid, speaking with a computer which was possibly simply having an overheat and typing the codificated sequence of it's voice control system.

"I know what you are doing!" typed the computer once more, and Izzy couldn't help but imagine a morbid voice hissing behind his ear in a murderous way, threatening to kill him. He shuddered at the thought yet tried to ignore it, he was at his office, there were security policemen at the basement and each of the floors, he was safer here than anywhere else.

"what are you talking about? What did you do to my computer?" Izzy typed, yet insisde his voice was yelling at the computer for an answer to his frustration.

"I know all about Proyect Matrix" the computer typed, it was logical that she knew about it considering she had been used to save all the data about the proyect and the final experiments, yet Izzy was annoyed at the fact that someone out there had entered his computer and found the files that considered nearly ten years of research.

"how did you hack into her? How could you evade the firewalls, antiviruses and codificated security controls and passwords?" Izzy inquired angrily, his insides burning yet contradicting himself with the cold feeling of fear spreading across his insides. It was his project and he hadn't gotten so far into it to hav it stolen now.

"I have followed your research for the past 8 years, and I am truly impressed at your capacity of understanding and learning, even how imaginative your mind is!" continued the screen with the same, acid green letters. Izzy snorted, was this guy actually paying attention to what he wrote?

"I have answers, I know how close you are to the end, yet you cant do that alone, this is as far as you can get with your computer!" explained the green letters in the same calm and passive tone that sent so much goosebumps covering his pale skin.

"tell me, I'm willing to listen!" commented Izzy with as much calm as he could gather, considering his computer was speaking to him and someone had hacked into his basicly impenetrable system.

"good!" typed the computer, which sent much more frustration across his body, realizing this misterious hacker had ignored all his inquires, instead of his secondary option which considered his kkeyboard being completely useless, "it is time you experiment with yourself, you know that the spoon does not exist, but you must believe that it really doesn't, once you manage that you will have reached the end, you will wake up!" the computer explained with it's usual calm.

Izzy straightened and tensed agaisnt his chair, he had mentioned this in such an unaudible voice and incoherent mumble that it was impossible they knew about his words, not when he was situated at the highest floor of a three hundred floor building and he was engulfed in a security camera with guards roaming across the building.

"what do you mean?" he inquired again in typing letters, yet as soon as his keyboard pressed enter, the screen flickered again and it faded inmediatly into the codes he had been analizing before the whole event had occurred. Izumi was bewildered by the computer's behaviour, it was not like any normal hacker had accessed his computer, he had never heard of a system working like that or a hacker gaining so much control over a computer. He analized his possibilities searching for a realistic conclusion, yet he knew very well this was a virtual reality and, like any operative system, it had flaws, therefore his mind roamed around the last phrase, considering all his possibilities. 

"daddy!" yelled a very shrieking, yet delighted young voice, and young Izumi was inmediatly ambushed by the small figure still engulfed in pijamas that was his youngest daughter.

"Mizzy!" Izzy said with a laugh, taking the girl in his arms and making her fly. Mizumi oppened her arms and closed her intense, deep black eyes, a swarm of butterflies tickling her stomach with their fantastic, velvet wings, the air caressing her delicate skin as the child imagined herself flying.

"daddy, make our secret place, please!" Mizzy begged once her father, feeling his arms weaker than normally as a cause of his general exhaustion and the many hours spent in front of the computer, placed her with wobbly legs on the ground.

"ok Mizzy, but first let me see your brother, ok?" Izzy said placing a hand tenderly on the three year's old head and shaking her still unruly, and wild hair, which flashed with an intense flaming colour, like the spirit that rested inside her young body, inherited all this from her father. She was a copy of her father, the same features as when he was young, the same flaming copper hair, and the same computer passion and experiment desires.

"bah, Kenji is asleep! Play with me and then, when he wakes up, you say hello to him, ok daddy?" Mizzy pouted, crossing her little arms, yet inmediatly slender fingers grabbed Izzy's untamed and wrinkled shirt and tugged at them with a hopeful expression. 

"all right! Aren't you one meany little girl? You'll make anyone do whatever you wish when you grow up!" Izzy joked with the young child, giving up in his attempt to salute the sleeping, five year old son. 

The two figures, father and daughter, entered the room, and without hesiation Izzy turned on the computer, it seemed obvious that, as a programer, his life revolved around computers, yet even a lover like him managed to get tired of the miraculous and self thinking items from time to time. His tender and calid face became cold and expressionless as soon as his fingers made contact with the cold and hard structure of the keyboard, his tired eyes glancing with a penetrating gaze at a misterious sequence of numbers and characters that flashed in intense green across his computer, falling in a cascade of database. 

He typed into his computer with speed and as soon as he pressed enter, the small room, with the bed and the curtains became a fantastic pond of crystaline waters and a cascade of singing fluid of life, whispering it's delicious songs to the winds. The trees bloomed where they hadnt existed before, and a faint rustle of leaves dropped the powder of numerous flowers over them, a brilliant purpurine of glittering magic that sparkled like the misterious speech of flashing stars. Then, next to the pond, by the waterfall, resting calmly on the grass, appeared an unicorn, of the purest white colour, the most intense violet eyes, horn and hooves of silver and mane the colour of pearls, with it's cromatic derivation reaching faint lilacs, pale blues and gentle greys. Mizzy shrieked in delight, "Pegasso!" she gleefully screamed and ran torwards the unicorn. The animal greeted her with a nod of his head, and Izzy smiled, it was just an illusion, a small world he created in the big illusion that was their life, but it was something that made his daughter happy, and with little effort he managed to make her enjoy the dream no children could achieve.

He saw thoughtfully the animal's games with the girl, the way he galloped and leapt and paced, the way he nieghed, and the way he made his horn sparkle with the essence of magic that rested within his depths. He saw Pegasso making the water raise in a motion of whirlpool, dancing like a mermaid in a rather seductive way, he could almost hear the melodious voice of the mythical creatures. That was until Izzy realized that the water had transformed into a woman, yet it was still water, crystaline, with tints of blue, difracting the reality around them and becoming, herself, a subreal, imaginative being.

"the spoon does not exist!" Izzy whispered to himself observing the active playing of the two creatures, the two data indeed.

Kenji, who had casted a glance across a gap in the door, gasped silently at the vision, his creamy, caramel eyes shining with amusement and evenr surprise. It was not like he had never seen his father creating paradises where they played, but the fact that he made them using some sort of magic always brought him a delicious deeling of joy into his depth, throught his soul, a light filling his young heart. He didn't dare to enter and decided to observe his sister enjoying the games with the unicorn and the water nymph, it made him happy even although he didn't participate. Kenji also knew this was their moment, his father and Mizzy's moment, and would never dare to break that blessed, sacred space of time.

Tokio's Daily

Izumi Koushiro DISSAPEARED!

The famous businessman Izumi Koushiro, president and founder of the famous computer company InSysMat-X, misteriously dissapeared the past thursday, 15 of november, after leaving his office at late hours of night. The guards, last people to have seen Izumi, declared that he stayed long after everyone left, which was usual in him.

   "Izumi left rather quickly that particular night, he seemed to be in a hurry, he didn't even say good night!" declared Kaero Nobu, one of the guards and the last person to have seen Izumi.

   "he was a strange man, he used to stay until very late, and sometimes you could see strange sounds or flashes of light coming from his office!" commented Mameha Yamamoto, one of the high security service police.

   "what sort of strange sounds?" asked one of our reporters.

   "I don't know, like waterfalls, horse neighs, birds chirping, even motorcycles and waves, and other assortments of sounds, normal sounds but you see, it's not normal they come from the office of a working man!" Mameha explained in a tone of suspicion.

   "anything else?" asked our reporter.

   "yes, nobody was allowed to enter to his office, it's enclosed with strange security passwords and a method I ignore, but nobody can get in, I think he was hiding something, him and those three strange people, Matthew Ishida, Cody, and Jake Anderson" the security guard explained in a low tone.

   Izumi Koushiro's work mates refused to speak to us, declaring he never hid anything and that he worked on computer projects himself before presenting them to the company and working at a high scale. However more accurate investiagtions believe he was working on something called Proyect Matrix, where he wanted to represent a virtual reality that could be mistaken for the reality. Investigations point out that his disappereance might have been caused by a problem considering this work, perhaps mafias from some sect or similar wanted to get him out of the way to put an end to that project. Simple speculations that give people what to think about. 

   As for now his dissapereance will remain a mistery and exhaustive investigations will continue. Reporter Draca Narlwe from the Tokio's Daily.

To Be Continued…

AN: There, the first chapter, do you like it? I promise that it will be more interesting as it goes on. This is a sequel to A Shooting Star, so if you want to know more about Proyect Matrix, how it all began, and how Izzy discovered that his world was Matrix, then I recommend you read that one. Please, I work hard in this so leave a review, I'll apreciate it.


	2. Mizumi's Search

Mizumi's black eyes glanced with determination at her computer, slender fingers typed back and forth while her eyebrows furrowed in concentration. A hand ran past her short, reddish hair, as she rubbed the sweat out of her forehead. There was that article, that familiar, old, rotten paper resting next to her, laying wrinkled on the desk. Blazing inside the screen were the other various articles, the videos from the news, everything Mizumi had gathered through the past sixteen years. Focusing all her attention in the search of any clue, Mizumi never realized someone had entered the dormitory.

"Mizumi, stop it!" Kenji's manly voice said with a tone of monotone desperation.

"Bugger off, Kenji, I'm busy!" Mizumi snapped coldly, that topic always angered her since she had been very united to her father.

"Stop torturing yourself, dad will not come back!" Kenji snapped angrily, frutasted upon seeing his sister consuming herself in grief.

"Onii-chan, Daddy was kidnapped because he knew something, and I'll find the culprits!" Mizumi turned around and smiled with determination at her brother.

"Stop saying nonesense!" Kenji snapped, "Stay away, those damned things lost dad, I don't want you to end like he did, Mizzy-chan!" Kenji said pointing at the glowing computer.

"Don't you ever call me Mizzy again, Kenji-san!" Mizumi growled almost like an animal, standing up and glaring at Kenji with flaming eyes.

Frozen in his place by his sister's sudden outburst, Kenji didn't do anything to restrain Mizumi from storming outside of the room. The boy simply followed her with the eyes, only to see she was carrying a rather large bag, and a motorcycle helmet.

"Where are you going?" Kenji wanted to ask, yet no words escaped his mouth.

Ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

With a loud, thundering roar, a very large, 3000, blue Kawasaki, speeded off into the night. Mizumi was dressed in black leather, comfortable shoes, and was carrying a bag on her back. The woman was concentrated on the track before her, as she left the narrow, city tracks and penetrate the wide, always straight highway.

"I have searched everywhere without finding anything about what happened to my father. There is only one place left, and I'm sure I'll find what Daddy was doing to get him kidnapped." Mizumi was thinking all the way through her trip across the highway.

The Kawasaki took the next exit and emerged outside Tokio, in an industrial neighbourghood, where all the buildings were industries and offices. Mizumi drove calmly towards the most magnificent, the largest, the inmense building of the InSysMat-X company, her father's company. The moto surounded the building and penetrated a narrow alley next to it. Turning the vehicle off and covering it with the rubbish cans and various boxes and things she found, the woman rushed towards the emergency ladder.

Mizumi climbed up various floors, never looking down at the enormous height below her unprotected feet. The woman was conscious that her father's office was right at the oposite side, but it was safer climbing through the emergency ladder than going up the few dozens of floors inside the colosus, with the security guards and other workers. A light flashed before her, giving her enought time to leap aside and shelter in one of the few concrete pillars. The flashlight flickered for a few instants, before recovering normality, the same as Mizzy's heart was thumping at an enormous speed.

"How peculiar, I changed batteries just this morning." A man's voice spoke from inside, while the light vanished into the dark corridors.

Relaxing all her tense muscles, Mizumi let a breath escape her mouth, and her eyes closed momentarily. Once she was completely recovered from the fright and the shock, she continued her climb upwards. It was not much further, only several floors. The woman glanced at the street and smiled gently at the height. The Kawasaki was well hidden, and the darkness covered it, but the impressive heights almost made Mizumi believe she was able to fly. Far away, in the depths of the inmense horizon, the million of colourful lights of civilization glimmered, veiled by sparkling lights and the focus of a silver, crescent moon.

"Woah, no wonder Daddy liked the highest floor." Mizumi thought with a smile that returned her toughtness and harsh temper to the gentle and chirpy child she had been in the past.

The glimmer of a car was moving calmly, slow and vigilant across the streets below. The vehicle was heading her way, but Mizumi pushed it aside believing it must be the guard. The young woman turned around and returned to her climbing, careful, observant and concentrated. Upon reaching the last floor, Mizumi drew out a laptop from inside the bag she had been carrying. The woman turned it on and began typing, and minutes after, the door was wide open and waiting for her entrance.

It was a dark room, cold and solid, and very uncozy. Asleep computers observed her from every corner. Neatly placed towers of papers stood still, here and there, between various pencils, pens, errasers, and other kind of objects fit for office work. Over every desk layed a rack full of cds, all of which seemed to have been situated there as the workers were leaving. Mizumi ignored everything, as much as it fascinated her, it was only a futile treat in comparison with the treasure she would find at the end of the cavern.

A guard passed by, with a flashlight. Mizumi was standing behind a door, not breathing, keeping her temper under control. As soon as the man was gone behind a corner, the girl kept her travel towards her father's office. It wasn't difficult, once the guard was gone, for it was one for every two or three floors of the building. The door as so simple, it was surprising nobody had been able to enter it in the past sixteen years. It was a single, wooden door with an ambarine glass decoration. Mizumi pulled out the laptop and began typing. Everybody thought the door had a key, what they didn't know was that it wasn't a phisical key.

"Done!" Mizumi said in a hissed exclamation.

Inmediately, the door vanished. The woman entered the office and gasped. It was like penetrating a world made out of snow and ice, for everything was white and glassy. Looking to her right, the woman saw the treasure that had been sixteen years waiting for her, there, still and calm, standing out in the darkness. Mizumi would have loved to explore every corner of her father's second house, but she had come to check his secret files, the knowledge that lost him.

"Codification... darn, I didn't count on that!" Mizumi whispered exasperated, staring at the flashing screen.

Looking left and right, checking the desk thoughtfully, Mizumi found something. It was a yellow post stick with something written on it. The woman pulled it out and placed it where the clarity was brighter, such that she could clearly read the contents.

"It's more simple than you think. Just think on what I loved the most, Mizzy." The note said.

"Daddy knew I would come!" Mizumi thought with surprise.

"What I loved the most..." Mizumi frowned glancing at the sparkling screen.

The girl placed a finger on a letter, but pulled it out timidly, only to let it rest over the same letter again. How could she know what her father loved the most when she had only been five the time he disappeared? Suddenly, she read the note again, there it was! How stupid could she be, when it was so clear. The note was directed to her, clearly, then her father knew she would come. After all, the two had shared many secret moments.

"Mizzy." The girl typed with happiness and renewed hope.

"Password Correct!" the computer typed, allowing her entrance to the database.

Hours passed by, and Mizumi was more and more surprised at the contents and the things she was finding. It was a whole proyect, an incredible work about virtual reality that dragged Izzy from one theory to another. When it was very clear, reaching the end of the proyect, the man finished with a sentence Mizumi didn't understand. That was the end of the proyect, and it lacked any conclusion, almost as if Izzy doubted of its vericity at the very end, when it was basically finished.

"We have worked so much! At first we wanted to create a virtual reality so faithful that it could be easily confunded with the reality we live in. As our work progressed, we discovered we could manipulate the reality, and that drove us to the belief that we were already living that virtuality. However, only we could manipulate it, other subjects could not make it work, even when programing the correct codes. I think we are right at the beggining. I know there is something else, but what? What makes me different to someone else?"

There was nothing else written. Mizumi believed he had found something after those words, and that had got him kidnapped, and probably murdered. Perhaps a guvernamental secret, or something darker. There was a loud crash and Mizumi raised her head alert. Tension acumulated in her body, and her heart began beating very rapidly. A strange, trickle like feeling began to flood through her body. The screen flashed a bright light when Mizumi looked at it, and the woman felt herself being dragged into it, being absorved. Mizumi yelled loudly, fear strangling her stomach with cold hands. Was this what happened to her father?

Mizumi oppened her tightly shut eyes. Incredible enough there was a sensation, a feeling of complete normality, and a slight trickle in her skin, like when you are charged with energy. The girl gasped loudly. This, everything around her was so odd. It looked like a labyrinth, but the walls were made out of silver and green, and the ocassional luminic database slithered past the walls' circuits. Behind her was a small corridor, and right into it flashed a bright, pure white light that seemed to be the door through which she had etered in this strange world. The girl looked forward, restraining the need of going back, and leapt backwards, gasping loudly.

A few metres from her, into that weird new world, was a boy. The boy was about her age, but there was something about him, something that made him old and mature. The girl noted that, under the fisherman hat, strands of golden hair fell upon his forehead, over his ears and flooded over his neck. The eyes were blue, a bright, aqua blue that seemed to glimmer under the odd light of this place. Such light seemed to be trapped inside the boy's eyes. The boy, or young man, glanced at Mizumi with curiosity, and somehow with fear, inner fear of not knowing how the girl would react. The boy had a slim body, which was covered with green and yellow shorts, and a T-shirt with the same colours.

"I... I didn't touch anything, I swear!" Mizumi stuttered raising her hands and looking guilty.

Frightened, feeling like the culprit of a crime, Mizumi did the only thing she thought of. The girl turned around and began running towards the shinny, luminic door, ignoring the boy's desperate yells.

"Wait! Don't go that way!" the boy yelled fearfully, raising a hand as if trying to stop her.

Mizumi ignored such words, and fell face first into her father's office. The woman collided with the desk's chair and topled over. Groaning, Mizumi stood up. The following morning she would bear a bruise on the cheek, and every bone in her body was bound to hurt. Standing up and dusting her clothes, Mizumi was ready to leave. The girl would copy all database into her computer, only for further study. The young woman oppened her laptop and began typing the codes for activation of the bluetooth system.

"Wait, you can't be here!" the tired voice of an adult man complained in the darkness.

Mizumi raised her head to listen. The was a strange sound, like someone spitting, and a loud thud on the floor, which signalled someone had fallen. The girl's heart began beating loudly when she realized there were various set of feet heading her way. The fallen man had been killed doubtlessly, murdered with a silent gun. Mizumi had to think, and think fast. There was only one exit, but she was so high, and there was, apparently, nothing, not even a window seal, that would aid her.

The woman examined the suroundings through the window. True she was on the last floor but a few floors below, on the corner of the building, was a balcony. Now she needed a way to get there. Mizumi looked left, only to meet a flag with the InSysMat-X symbol, and a rope laying lazily on the metal pole, a thick rope.

The girl placed her laptop in the bag and hanged it over her shoulders. Ringht after, and with a speed that came from fear, Mizumi oppened the window, unrolled the rope, untied the knots and tied it on the window frame. When she was finished, three people entered the room, two men and a woman. They were all dressed in black suits, and they all carried glasses. The girl couldn't see their features in the darkness, but it was obvious they were older than her.

Mizumi's heart skipped a beat, and her stomach tensed along with all her muscles. The girl realized that right in that moment, the computer's screen rippled like a pond where you have thrown a stone. It was the first time she realized her fear seemed to affect electronic objects. Swaisting no time, Mizumi leapt into the empty night, kicked the wall and gripped the rope tightly.

With a yell of glee mixed with fear, Mizumi swinged into the night, heading for the balcony. When a few metres separated her from the door to escape, Mizumi let her hands open and the girl flew across the night. The arms open, the pride high, Mizumi landed, not with much expertise, into the solidness of the balcony's tiles. Not spending a second, the girl leapt into the building, jumping right through the glass door. That earned her a few cuts, and the alarm of the floor guard.

Mizumi rushed across the dark corridors, evading tables, desks, chairs and everything in her way. Guiding herself with intuition, the woman was heading towards the ladder as fast as her legs could carry her. Breathing laboured, the electronic objects seemed to spark, or react as her nervous body rushed past. It wasn't the moment to think about this odd event.

"Hey! STOP!" a guard, female, ordered while pointing her flashlight at the girl.

The woman dodged the other female and entered a room. Mizumi pounced upon the glass door and slammed her body onto the dense fluid. The glass shattered, cutting her clothes a little more, and gashing her skin such that blood poured, and the cuts itched. Loosing no second, Mizumi began her descent towards the street. Looking up as she was almost reaching the bottom, she saw the three shadows observing her from above.

With a proud smile, Mizumi leapt off the last floor and landed gracefully on the pavimented street. The woman ripped the rubish off her moto, kicked the bins aside and mounted on the vehicle. Mizumi didn't wear the helmet, she didn't have time. Starting the two wheeled object, the moto speeded off into the night, the rubber wheels screeching on the pavement. There was only one thought in the woman's mind, to escape, to return home. This must have been Izzy's thoughts the night he disappeared.

"This is all too weird." Mizumi thought as she drove through the night. "What happened to Daddy? I think I feel just the same as he did, when I thought I was just one step to the end, I find myself at the beggining of the journey. Who was that boy? What was that place? Why do objects seem to react oddly when I'm near?"

The journey was frantic, she was going very fast in her hurry, but she was alone. Not for long since she saw, through the mirrors, two large cross motos in her pursue.

"Shit!" Mizumi exclaimed pressing on the handler to speed the vehicle.

The three motos speeded past the night, in equal speed, maintaining the distances. The three vehicles were balanced in power and in strength. Mizumi didn't know what to do, maybe while reaching Odaiba, she would be able to get rid of them. Here, in a highway, it was impossible. The woman gasped in shock. Crossed in the highway, ocupying the whole of it, was an enormous lorry.

"Oh damn! What can I do now?" Mizumi thought rapidly while diminishing speed.

Calculating here and there, watching through the mirrors just how the other two motos were getting closer, the girl took the only decition she could. It was risky, she knew it was very dangerous and that there was a very big probability that she wouldn't make it. However, if she let this strangers get her, she would deffinitely be done for. So, the woman increased speed again and headed towards the lorry, under the surprised gaze of the other two riders. Closer, closer, maintaining speed, there was just one single chance that she would make it.

Just when the truck was close enough that it seemed it would fall upon her, Mizumi manouvred in a way that pulled a yelp of surprise from the pursuers. The woman threw the weight over the left side and pulled the moto down. Mizumi bent her leg and drew it towards her body. The vehicle slipped down and beggan sliding towards the truck. It passed right under the enormous belly, ripping golden and silver sparks from the pavement and screeching like a seagull. When the light of a full moon fell upon the vehicle once again, Mizzy pushed up with the left leg and the moto stood up.

The other two motos' wheels screeched on the pavement. Mizumi breathed heavily while glancing at the truck. It was incredible but she had managed it. Loosing no more time, the girl speeded off on her, once magnificent moto. The left side was completely scratched, and part of the cover had fallen off, or was cracked here and there.

Apparently, the young woman would manage to have some peace. Unfortunately, a car was on her pursue now, just as she entered Odaiba. Desperate, the girl rushed off, evaded an unfortunate passerby, and ran across the empty streets. The vehicle entered a dark alley, and Mizumi dismounted hoping the car would not have noticed her.

"We got you!" said a very serious voice behind her.

Mizumi turned around and saw the two men and the woman blocking her exit. The three were aiming at her with three, large guns. Terror filled her once again and Mizumi began shaking her head, tears itching her eyes as a thick frustration began to consume her.

"What do you want from me?" the girl yelled angrily, salty drops falling from her black eyes.

"Nothing, just finish with your lot and rid the world from scum like you!" the woman said with a cruel sneer.

"What lot? I'm just a teenager!" Mizumi snapped more bravely.

"Don't act stupid with me, girl. You know perfectly well what I'm talking about!" the woman said aiming at Mizumi with more precition.

The girl shut her eyes and got ready for what was to come. There was that nagging feeling inside her, that terrible thought of not understanding what whas happening, and that sadness for not having found her father. However, it seemed this people were also after her father, for reasons she doesn't know, and would never understand.

"Perhaps, death isn't so bad." Mizumi thought trying to cheer herself.

Mizumi was surprised, but the three pursuers never knew what attacked them.

To Be Continued...

AN: OK, I got to continuing this fanfiction, although nobody liked it. I had a really good idea, and decided it was better if I finished it. I am planning on finishing everything I've got started, then work full time on my book, a very thick critic to society. Well, please, tell me what you think about it. It gets more interesting throughout the next chapters.


	3. Takeru, the Digi

Mizumi was surprised, but the three pursuers never knew what attacked them. Like a firebolt, a boy leapt out of an old, rotten door that was on the wall right to Mizumi. Extending a hand before him, a flash of white and golden light escaped his hand, filling the alley with its pure, almost solid luminity. The three pursuers were engulfed by the luminity, and the young man's concentration was broken for a brief second.

"This way!" he said with a gentle voice, taking Mizumi's hand and pulling her into the building.

The girl realized that, even though that same hand had released an energetical intensity of imcredible proportions, it had only the human warmth of blood in it. Mizumi checked the boy as darkness surounded them. The girl realized he was the same boy she had met in the strange place at her father's office, even although she couldn't see his features.

"Don't think, just relax and let your body flow!" the boy said glancing at her briefly through the corner of the eyes.

"What?" she asked as the two climbed the, old, rotten stairs of what seemed a very old building of homes.

The boy slammed a door open, and pulled Mizumi along with him, into the house. The groans, the angered yells, and the hurried steps in the darkness told Mizumi that the pursuers were after her once again. There was no more thinking, for that sensation of energy rush filled her veins and body once again. With a luminic flash, the girl looked around, and found herself trapped in that mysterious world once again. The boy was next to her, bent over, with the hands placed on the knees and panting like a dog, but smiling gently at her.

"Are you ok?" the boy asked in a friendly tone.

"Who are you?" Mizumi inquired trustlessly.

"Oh, forgive my distraction, a lot of strong emotions. My name is Takeru." The boy introduced himself, bowing like a true gentleman.

"Aha... well, thank you for saving me but I think I have to get going." Mizumi pointed out, smiling tensely, and headed towards the same entrance through which the two had entered.

"No, no! Don't go that way." Takeru said slightly alarmed, jumping forward and gripping the girl's arm. "They can still be there, they know you are unexperienced." The young man explained.

"What... what are you talking about?" Mizumi shrieked tugging her arm free, and glancing at the boy as if he was crazy.

"I know it might sound odd at the beggining, but you'll understand, and you'll like it." Takeru said shrugging, never letting that gentle smile leave his lips.

"Of course it sounds odd! I've been pursued in the middle of the night by a group of sycopaths, and now I'm trapped in some odd situation with a madman, strange events take place around me, and you are still positive I'm going to act like all this havoc is rational?" Mizumi yelled, her face turning as red as her hair.

Instead of recoiling, or faltering, or acting in any offended or saddened way, Takeru broke into a sound laughter. That only exasperated Mizumi further, if that was possible.

"What is so funny?" Mizumi snapped furiously, clenching her fists.

"Nothing, only you talk just like your father." Takeru laughed loudly, looking at Mizumi with glee.

"What? You knew my father?" Mizumi inquired shocked, all the anger faded inmediately.

"Old Izzy? Yeah, he was a friend of mine when we were children!" Takeru explained shrugging, realizing that the girl, probably, knew nothing about their digital adventures.

"That is impossible! You must be around my age, and my father disappeared when I was five!" Mizumi argued crossing her arms in a thick headed way.

"Actually, I am forty one years old." Takeru explained, his eyes glinting with strange wisdom, as well it a peculiar youth.

"Stop toying with me!" Mizumi yelled, "I'm going home!"

"Wait, er... girl." Takeru enlarged her hand, but the girl was on the ready and evaded his touch.

"It's Mizumi, and why am I explaining anything to you?" Mizumi hissed venomously.

"Mizumi, listen. All of this has a very good explanation, really. Please, come with me and I will tell you everything." Takeru said staring at her with pleading, desperate eyes.

"Why should I?" Mizumi snapped inflating her chest and glaring at Takeru.

"Well, I have a million reasons. The first is now you are under the watch of all humanity, and specially those people. They will kill you if they find you. Second, I can show you how to deffend yourself. Third, your father will kill me if something happened to you!" Takeru said, looking slightly frustrated, but also calm, "Please..."

"Hum... I don't know..." Mizumi commented, staring at his open hand with mistrust.

"Lets make a deal. I tell you and show you all I know, and then you decide whether to believe it or not." Takeru said, his eyes glinting, and a more vivid smile appeared in his lips.

"You look very sure of yourself, don't you?" Mizumi said with a fake sneer.

"It comes with my charms." Takeru lifted his shoulders and inflated his chest.

"Charm's? You wish!" Mizumi snapped, glancing at the boy, "Well, fine, you show me all that, but know it's just so you leave me alone." The girl finished.

"Lets go then." Takeru said with a gleeful manner.

"Where?" Mizumi inquired as the boy began walking away from the exit.

"To a place you'll like." The boy said turning his head to look at the girl.

"Takeru, wait, I want to know what's going on!" Mizumi said with a desperate voice, her integrity collapsing.

"Don't worry, I'll tell you as we walk. First, do you know what we are?" Takeru inquired calmly.

"What we are?" Mizumi inquired trotting until she was next to him. "We are humans, as far as I know, homo sapiens!"

"Yes, that's just part of what we are. Let's see how I can make it simple..." Takeru glanced at the metallic ceiling for a few seconds, "We are what, in the past, were called Mages." Takeru finally explained with a bright smile.

"Mages? Now I really think you are bonkers." Mizumi muttered looking sideways.

"No, it's true. Lets say the mages evolved, ok? Nowdays we can't create balls of fire (well, we can, but that's not the matter), or resurrect the dead, but we can modify the reality. We have developed a Digital Spirit, and, digitaly, like in a gigantic virtual reality, we can create and errase things." Takeru explained excitedly.

"Matrix." Mizumi said absently. "My father spoke of a virtual reality called Matrix, he believed we lived in such virtual reality, and he wanted to know what was outside that." Mizumi explained more animated.

"Exactly. Izzy was wrong in one thing. He believed Matrix was the world, but not everyone can modify the world. Matrix is what we are, what the new mages are. We are Matrix." Takeru said more seriously. "We are called Digis, Digital Spirits. People fear us because we are more powerful than they, and we could rule them with ease."

"People fear what they don't understand." Mizumi commented absently.

"Exactly! They were so afraid of us that they created a secret organization, the ODE, Organization of Digital Extermination. The Agents are very prepared men and women very advance in tecnology, which's mission is destroy every Digi they find.

Now, lets see. We have a little problem, which is that, when being near any electronical object, the object reacts to our energy creating interferences. The Agents can detect that energy and always know where we are." Takeru said looking serious and somewhat afraid.

"What about now?" Mizumi inquired, terrified.

"Well, we have an advantage. We are part digital, so we can move across the digital ways, highways, paths, whatever. It's called the Line. Lets say we are data moving through internet." Takeru said extending his arms upwards to motion at the fantastic suroundings, "The Agents are humans. They can't come here, they can't detect us while we are data, because we are another part of the millions of data that move through the world."

"You are trying to tell me, that we are like Werewolves? Half human, half digital?" Mizumi inquired looking sceptic.

"I wouldn't have explained it better! Yes, and now you have discovered you are Digi. The ODE know as well, and will do everything to kill you, specially knowing you are inexperienced." Takeru said seriously.

"That is all very nice, but it doesn't explain why you know my father, or why you look twenty three years old, or so, while you say you are forty one." Mizumi said with cunning.

"I'd rather not talk about that." Takeru said looking away, a shadow of time seemed to extend a sombre veil over him.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..." Mizumi said softly, feeling guilty.

"It's ok. Look, we are here!" that light, that gentleness, that eternal youth seemed to illuminate him once again, as he pointed at a small corridor with a luminic door.

The two youths exited through the door and emerged into a strange, dark room illuminated with candles, and various bulbs of weak voltage. Everything about the room was murky and strange, and Mizumi noted a coldness that, apparently, was herself. The walls were dark, oily, and full of dust, with thick tubes and large cables running here and there. Machinery of the most strange shapes and functions were situated in the form of tables and chairs. Various people were roaming about the room, making their things, or talking with one another.

"TK!" said a happy voice in the depths of the dark room.

"Chiyo!" the two embraced themselves and fell in a fit of laughter.

The woman was pretty, with gentle features, and noble ruby eyes. The woman's hair was black, and held in a ponytail. Apparently, she was much older than the rest of the people around, for many were Mizumi's age, and a few were teenagers, while Chiyo was nearing the thirtys.

"Who is this?" Chiyo questioned glancing at Mizumi trustlessly.

"Mizumi-chan, this is Chiyo-sempai." Takeru introduced with a smile.

"A pleasure." Mizumi said almost shyly.

"Mizumi? I know you! You are Izzy's daughter. My parents were friends with your parents. You were too young and you, probably, don't remember me, but I have been at your place a few times, how is Kenji?" Chiyo smiled with more delight, letting the coldness aside to act motherly warm towards Mizumi.

"Ke... Kenji? He... he is fine, like always." Mizumi stared at the taller woman with respect and a slight fear, like a small child.

"I would pay a visit, but..." Chiyo extended her arms to show herself in a gesture that clearly meant they were not welcome outside this sanctuary.

"Which place is this?" Mizumi finally asked, turning towards Takeru.

"It's an electrical power plant. We live here because it's one of the few places the Agents can't track us down. They detect the variations of energy, the interferences. Here, there are so many variations and so many interferences, the agents can't distinguish one from another." Takeru explained with a pride that clearly showed it had been his idea.

"But won't the Agents know of this?" Mizumi stated wisely.

"Yeah, but many Digis live in the country, where there is nothing electronical, and many others live inside the Line, but that last option is not a good one." Takeru said darkly at this last statement.

Mizumi decided not to speak, noticing the change of mood in the boy. Something very thraumatic must have happened to him during his 'change', during the 'awakening' of his digital spirit. Suddenly she felt like slapping herself, if being pursued by a group of assasins in potence, and being rescued by a dement with fairy stories wasn't thraumatic, then she was deffinitely insane.

"I'm sorry." Takeru said smiling at the girl, recovering that hopeful way he had of watching life.

"It's ok, I think all of us had a bad experience in life. I lost my father." Mizumi said looking at the boy with a saddened smile.

"I know." Takeru said placing a hand on her shoulder and pressing at it in a comforting manner, "Look, why don't you stay here for the night? Rest and tomorrow you can go back to your place. You need time to think about all this." The boy suggested with a gentle smile.

"A... all right." The girl said in a strangled voice, lowering her face until it was hidden by the loose strands of her flaming hair.

"What?" Takeru's smile faded, as he lowered his face and placed his finger under Mizumi's chin to make her look up, "What's wrong, Mizumi?" the boy asked worriedly.

"I... I don't want to be this way!" Mizumi looked up and glanced at Takeru's blurry image through her teary eyes.

"Oh, Mizumi!" Takeru took a hold of her shoulders and tried to force a smile at her, "Don't worry, it might be hard at first, but you'll eventually like it. It is a gift after all."

"Gift?" Mizumi spat frustrated, "It's a curse. I can't do a normal living, I have to stay away from all electronic device. I'm doing third of informatics! How am I going to finish my career? Speak with a cell phone? Go shopping!" Mizumi was enraged as she pondered all the things she couldn't do any more.

"You can do more than that! Now you have a new life, a better life. You can do all you wish, truly sail through internet. You can do things not even literature ever dreamed of." Takeru explained with a smile.

"I... I dont't want that life, Takeru sempai." Mizumi said through sobs, her spirits collapsing.

"Come here." The boy embraced her tightly, and Mizumi allowed him that fact of affection. "Listen, go to bed. Tomorrow I'll take you home, ok?" Takeru said pulling away to stare at her.

The woman nodded while rubbing the tears away from her cheeks. Rosy lips were pressed to avoid more crying, but she gave in to her exahustion and to all the strong emotions she had experienced in few hours. Takeru drove her past the murky, dark corridors, into a murky, dark room with a single, murky, dark bed. It looked so cold and uncomfortable, like the bed from a jail, or a really awful hospital. Mizumi didn't care about it as she layed, extremely tired, on the bed. The scent that came from the white sheets was a fresh, icy smell, which signalled that the bed cloth was clean.

"Sleep well, Mizumi. You have had a hard day." Takeru said softly while walking out of the room and turning off the light, never staying to listen a tired grunt from Mizumi's direction.

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"Do you remember how to enter the Line?" Takeru inquired glancing very seriously at Mizumi.

"Yes, I think so. I have to focus on entering, I have to imagine myself into the Line." Mizumi said timidly, she was rested but still felt a little dizzy from all the information she had gotten.

"Exactly. One more thing, just for safety. I think you should come to the Hideout for security, just to sleep. Also, come from time to time, I can show you how to use your gift." Takeru said smiling gently.

"Hum. We'll see about that last one." Mizumi said dryly and turned around, vanishing through the glimmering door and disappearing out of Takeru's sight.

"Oh, Mizumi, if you would just give it a chance." Takeru said with a sigh, staring fixedly at the point where Mizumi had disappeared.

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To Be Continued...

AN: Ok, here comes the third chapter. I know nobody is reading it, and I don't know what you people think about it. Please, I'd like to know how the story is going. I'll try to keep it up with the rest of the stories.


	4. Denying the Truth

The girl entered her flat with care. It was dark again, and the walk had been rapid and hurried, in order of escaping the signal she had left at the digital entrance to the Line. Mizumi pondered about this, and hated this fact about herself. It was a life full of doubts, always glancing at her backs in search of a pursuing Angent, a life running just to save it. It wasn't the life Mizumi had expected for herself.

"Mizumi!" a frantic yell filled her ears with terror.

Yolei was arms extended, and wanted to embrace her tightly. The girl tensed as her mother's hands pressed on her back tightly. Mizumi was not ready to have any kind of contact with her family already Hesitant hands wrapped around her mother's body, but her stiff body just wanted to be left alone.

"Where have you been?" Yolei inquired, yet although her eyes were teary, her expression was ferocious.

"I'm sorry, I had some things to do. I should have told you." Mizumi excused herself lowering her head in shame and respect.

"That's not it. Do you realice how worried we have been? We found your moto half destroyed. What happened?" Kenji said angrily, extending a hand to grip Mizumi's arm.

"Don't touch me!" Mizumi shrieked leaping backwards, feeling ashamed of her condition.

With tears in her eyes, Mizumi pushed Kenji aside and rushed past the corridor and into her room. Back again, she had collapsed. Oddly enough she had gotten to confide more deeply in Takeru than in her own family. After all, it wasn't that strange, since nor Kenji, nor her mother suffered from the terrible curse that affected her. Trying to draw her thoughts away from her strange disease, for she considered it an incurable disease, Mizumi drew out her laptop from the bag. The young woman was going to study her father's work more calmly, perhaps learn a little more. As soon as the laptop was turned on, a ripple affected the screen, and she remembered Takeru's words about their effect on digital and electronic devices.

"Shit! Shit! Shit!" Mizumi yelled, crying very loudly and slamming her fists on the desk.

"Mizumi-chan?" Kenji's voice said from the depths of the dark corridor.

"Leave me alone, Onii-chan." Mizumi's sobs answered weakly, as her eyes glanced desperated and with longing at her laptop.

"What is wrong? What happened?" Kenji, ignoring Mizumi's complain, entered the room.

"Kenji-san, leave!" Mizumi snapped more harshly, "Nothing is wrong. I just didn't have a nice day."

"Mom is worried." Kenji said softly, ignoring his sister's words while glancing at the screen, "You went, didn't you?"

"Yes, now leave. I'll be fine!" Mizumi said once again, trying to restrain a sob.

"Mizzy, please, forget it. Dad is gone, and if you mess with those matters, you'll run the same destiny as he did..." Kenji's voice was tolerant, as well as worried.

"I told you..." Mizumi said through furious, ragged breaths, "...not to call me Mizzy!"

The woman stood up as she said those words. The slender fingers clenched into fists as her voice shapeshifted into a growl. Kenji, intimidated and frightened at the strange aura he was glancing, recoiled while placing his hands in front of him, in the form of a protective shield. It didn't take him long to realice that Mizumi was better left alone, before any serious damage could reach him, and thus he left the room as rapid as if a wolf was biting his heels.

Once gone, Mizumi let herself fall onto the bed. A deep, long sigh escaped her lips. It was not pleasant to live like this, to live a lie. Obviously, she was not going to reveal her condition to her family, not yet however, and deffinitely not when she just got notice of her kind, and realized people hated them. Sleep reached her easily, before she could realice it. The past day had been rather busy and eventful.

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"I'm going to class." Mizumi anounced while walking past the living room.

Kenji was talking through the phone, and Yolei was nowhere to be seen, probably at work. The man was bearing a rather pleased smile, while maintaining his voice casual and serious. Curious, his sister stared at him in silence, pondering about this call. Mizumi had heard the phone ringing, but her brother's expression was worth to be investigated, and curiosity was a big enemy, as well as a rather worthy ally.

"Who was it?" the girl questioned absently once Kenji had hanged.

"Just someone offering me a job as a programer." Kenji said casually, but the expression of his face was priceless and spoke of his enthusiasm.

"Really? That's great! Which company?" Mizumi inquired almost as excited as Kenji.

"He didn't say, but I'm meeting him to talk and negotiate." Kenji said, now smiling brightly.

"Well, good luck. I'm leaving before I'm late. By the way, what happened to my moto?" Mizumi inquired, now beggining to miss her beloved vehicle.

"It's being repaired, Mom made sure of that. Don't worry, in a couple of weeks you'll have it back." Kenji said nodding reassuringly, yet there was a darkness in him, a shadow of doubt as he stared at Mizumi, that it was almost frightening.

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Mizumi was running across the streets. The woman hadn't counted on the fact that her beloved vehicle was somewhere else because she had worked a perfect strategy to avoid being killed. As fast as she was going, Mizumi was not really in a hurry, or not in her opinion. It wasn't like she hated Takeru, but meeting him meant meeting herself, and she wasn't too eager about meeting herself.

"Mizumi!" Takeru beamed at her from under the shadow of a tree.

Grunting a salut, Mizumi threw her bag under the tree and slopped as well. Taking a bottle out of a pocket, she took several large gulps of water into her tired body. Running was not one of her options, she always preffered being taken around, by wheels, and prefferably driving herself. Takeru smiled understandingly at her, yet said nothing, remembering he had gone exactly through the same process. The difference was that he never lost hope, even although he had experienced a much more thraumatic event.

"Well, do you want to start?" Takeru inquired glancing at Mizumi with slight excitement and with understanding.

"Leave me alone for a bit, please!" Mizumi snapped annoyed while regaining her breath.

It was a wonder Takeru was so patient with someone he didn't even know. Obviously, they have barely met a day ago, and still, he was calm and tolerant with her constant responses and comebacks. Probably it was because he had gone through the same, or maybe it was because their kind had to protect each other in order to survive. Whatsoever, the parade they were situated in was rather relaxing, and it seemed to soother Mizumi's temper noticeably. A small woodland extended in every side, the protection of trees would give them privacy for their doings. Still, the roaring of cars could be heard in the distance.

"Mizumi, come on, you'll have fun." Takeru said softly, always treating the girl with cheerful manners and respect.

"Fine, but don't get used to it!" Mizumi answered, always treating the boy as if he was some sort of crazy freak, obsessed with RPGs.

Minutes after, Takeru was pointing at a fallen, dead tree, while his other hand rested over Mizumi's shoulder. The girl, on the other hand, looked bored, her eyelids fell halfway down her eyes lazily. Mizumi managed to stiffle a yawn, and moved her arms to make something and not fall asleep.

"Look, each of us has one form of attacking. It is elemental, in a way. My form of attack is the luminous beam, a blast of pure energy." Takeru explained excitedly, staring at the bark and glancing at his right hand.

"Right..." Mizumi answered in a droned voice.

"Now look. You might not managed it at first, but eventually it will come alone. You have to focus all your energy in your hand, whichever you like. You can use both hands if you preffer. Then, when you have managed to concentrate your energy, you just let it loose, like a bow string, or like when you throw a rock." Takeru explained looking concentrated, yet extremely delighted at doing this.

As his words finished, a beam of powerful, white and silver light, escaped his hand and flew across the warm atmosphere. It managed to shatter the fallen log in two, and its power was so great it illuminated the clearing with a much brighter light than the residual rays of a far away sun.

"Do you see?" Takeru inquired glancing for the first time at Mizumi.

"Right." Mizumi said in that same, bored voice.

"Mizumi, are you paying attention?" Takeru asked more serious than usually.

"Right." Mizumi answered with a sigh, glancing at a chirping bird that was resting on a nearby tree.

"MIZUMI!" Takeru yelled loudly.

"What?" the woman protested, throwing her arms up the air, annoyed by the scream.

"Is it much effort for you to pay attention?" Takeru asked in a tense, hard voice.

"Well, it is, because this doesn't interest me the least bit!" Mizumi was surprised at Takeru's tone.

"It isn't a matter of interest! It's a matter of survival, Mizumi! You must learn this if you want to have a chance against the Agents!" Takeru snapped angrily, yet also frustrated.

"Well, what if I don't want to face those Agents? What if I just want to be normal?" Mizumi spat in that angered growl she managed when she was really furious.

"But you are not normal, Mizumi!" Takeru snapped also rising his voice, nearly reaching Mizumi's point of anger.

That last sentence really did hurt Mizumi. Normally she was not much of a sensitive person, but this past hours had shattered her integrity completely. With a strangled gurgle that sounded like a rather nasty insult, Mizumi turned around and ran into the woodlands, emmiting loud sobs. With a tight pressure in his heart, and a very guilty feeling in his body, Takeru ran after her. Mizumi hadn't ran for long, and the boy found her sitting under a very thick tree, her face hidden under her arms, and her whole body being convulsed by spasms. Takeru was slightly hesitant before approaching the woman's refugee.

"Mizumi..." he tried softly.

"Leave me alone, you... weirdo!" Mizumi's voice was muffled, and the words were not very clear.

"Listen, Mizumi. I'm sorry I said all that, but I want you to learn how to deffend yourself, I want to know you are safe." Takeru explained kneeling before her and placing a hand on her knee.

"Why? You barely know me, why do you care?" Mizumi inquired raising her red, teary eyes from their hideout.

"You are Izzy's daughter, and you are one of us!" Takeru said with a smile, "I never got to see you the day you were born, or to give you a birthday present. I think I owe you something." His voice was as gentle as always, and his lips curled in a sweet smile.

"You don't owe me anything." Mizumi said looking sideways and resting her face on her knees.

"Please. Let me teach you." Takeru said standing up and extending a hand towards Mizumi.

Hesitant and feeble, like a newborn's hand, Mizumi's left appendage travelled slowly towards Takeru's hand. Finally, a decition illuminated her mind, and, firm and strong, her hand closed around Takeru's. The boy pulled her up strongly, yet with care. An exchange of looks was enough to share a new, strong and complice bond. The boy smiled and repeated the instructions slowly and with detail. Mizumi was paying attention, and she found herself strangely eager to try her power.

"Ok, try now." Takeru motioned at a rather dry bush that rested, langid, on the center of a small clearing.

"All right!" Mizumi stated with determination.

Sweat began to trickle over her wrinkle forehead, a rather noticeable frown was curling her skin. The black eyes were fixedly on the bush, almost as if she was aiming a gun. Down, in her right hand, Mizumi began to extend and curl her fingers, making the ticklish feeling in them vanish slightly. Almost there, she felt ready, the energy was surging through her veins. Mizumi threw her hand forward while exhaling a loud, severe scream. That scream faded into a totally pained one.

"I pulled my muscle!" Mizumi proclaimed in various tones, and almost in various languages.

"You don't need to concentrate that much. Relax and let it happen." Takeru said with an understanding smile while crossing his arms over his chest.

"Maybe I don't have any kind of super powerful attack." Mizumi reasoned.

"It was your first trial. Try again." Takeru said calmly, pointing at the scrawny, dry bush.

Such she did. Hour after hour, Mizumi tried to throw an attack at the bush. The monstruous being, even in its last breaths, always managed to evade her attacks. Probably he would have done if she had ever thrown any. By the time lunchtime was beggining to vanish into the afternoon, Takeru was laying under a tree, his back leaned against the bark, his arms under his head like a pillow, and the white fisherman hat situated over his eyes.

"Listen, I appreciate your obstinence, but I think it's enough for today." Takeru commented drowsily.

"I'm sure I can manage it!" Mizumi said very seriously.

"I'm sure you can, but not today." Takeru said very gently, standing up and placing a hand up Mizumi's shoulder, "Lets go home."

Mizumi stared at Takeru and thought about his words for brief moments. Finally, she nodded. After all, her arm was hurting, her hand was feeling hot, and she, herself, was feeling exhausted. This was harder than she thought.

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Mizumi let her bag on the first corner at the hall. The sports showed were thrown somewhere else, in chaotic order. The woman sighed with relief as she was home, the sensation of warmth and security was always soothing. Mizumi went to the kitchen and took a coke from the fridge, then retreated to the living room, where she found her brother sitting on the sofa, reading a book.

"Hello, Onii-chan. What happened with that job?" Mizumi inquired cassually, she was feeling more animated than last night.

"Fine. The boss was rather glad with my work, and he wants to see me at his office tomorrow, for the first tutorial." Kenji said brightly, placing the book aside.

"I'm so happy for you. If the work and the payment is good, you might get that flat!" Mizumi commented with brightness, beaming at her brother.

"Yeah, although it is not a well known company. Something like DOE." Kenji commented glancing at the ceiling thoughtfully.

"Odd, I've never heard of it, but the name sounds familiar." Mizumi said absently, taking a zip from her coke, "Whatever! All computer companies sound the same." She finished shrugging.

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"Look, Takeru-sempai, we have been working on this for more than a month, already, and nothing!" Mizumi said frustrated, glancing at her hands with anger, "I think I, simply, don't have any power at all." She said almost deceived.

"Maybe you are right." Takeru commented, standing before her and staring at the woman with an observant gaze that got her nervous.

"Then why are you making me loose my time?" Mizumi spat angrily, clenching her fists.

"What I don't know is how you are going to deffend yourself." Takeru commented thoughtfully, his eyes glancing at the cloudy sky.

"I can deffend myself without stupid powers!" Mizumi growled angrily.

"Really? Prove it!" Takeru commented drawing a mischievous smile on his lips.

"Of course I will!" Mizumi hissed gritting her teeth with frustration and anger.

AN: Here comes the next chappie. This is getting more interesting, isn't it? I'm liking the way it's turning out, really, I think this story has potential. I believe nothing like this was written before. I like doing things nobody has ever done. Well, please review and tell me what you think.


	5. The Party

Takeru knew this was working. It was bringing all the energy in her, making her concentrate on one aim, and, eventually she would throw her attack. From that point it would all be very easy. It was like breathing for the first time for a baby, once you do it once, you know how to do it forever. Mizumi wanted to pounce forward, but in her constant training all she did was extend both her hands towards Takeru. The boy leapt aside as a blast of fire flew like a comet towards him, igniting the dry bush behind him.

"Fire!" Takeru snapped, picking up a fallen branch and hitting the burning bush desperately.

"I did it..." Mizumi murmurred absently, staring at her hand as if in a haze.

"I don't think this is a good place to practice your attack." Takeru commented once he was sure the fire had been extinguished.

"I did it!" a loud, excited shrill filled Takeru's ears.

Mizumi, ignoring all the manners she had been taught, pounced on the boy throwing both of them to the ground. All the while, the woman would scream how she had managed it, while Takeru would embrace her excitedly, while beaming at her and praising her triumph. It was then that the two realized their awkward position. Takeru smiled shyly while a slight red tint coloured his cheeks, and Mizumi smiled foolishly.

"I did it." She repeated in a child like way.

"I think we should celebrate it. I'll prepare a party, just come to the Hideout tonight." Takeru said smiling gently at Mizumi, while pushing her aside and helping her on her feet.

"All right." Mizumi said with a nod, althought she was really excited about all the latter events.

"See you later." Takeru said, kissing her forehead and running away.

Mizumi was dumbfounded. Sure Takeru had always been kind to her, but he had never showed any kind of affection, not even friendship although he was a person in which Mizumi was learning to trust. Not like he pushed her away, but Takeru was almost acting the role of mentor, or father. While he looked twenty something, and acted like that most of the time, he was also conscious of his true age, and tried to act like it as well. The child in him was too strong to be replaced by the adult that might come in a far away future.

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The screen of an old, rather arcaic computer, flashed a bright white for a few seconds. Mizumi's figure appeared as soon as the brightness faded. The black eyes shone brightly, her face lit with a light of excitement, and her hands covered a gaping mouth as Mizumi restrained a gasp. There was a general roar, a bellow of congratulations, and a crowd of people surounding her with bright smiles and a glimmer of aceptation in their faces. Mizumi saw several colourful balloons bouncing here and there. The haze of a light smoke that was itching and annoying floated in the air. Someone asked what was being celebrated, while several people blew whistles at the girl.

"Thank you!" Mizumi gasped shocked, her eyes larger than usually, and humid with excitement.

Sure she had been warned about a party, but the girl had imagined something more personal. Perhaps a dinner with the group, and afterwards a calm coffee with Takeru and Chiyo. Suddenly she was being attacked by an enthusiastic group of Digis, all of which already knew her from her stances during the night.

"Come and have something to drink, what do you like? Beer?" Takato Yagami, a young, seventeen years old Digi, said lifting a glass which clearly contained beer.

"Hum, no thanks, it's too sour for my taste." Mizumi said looking disgustedly at the golden, fresh liquid, crowned with white foam.

"What do you like?" Takato inquired calmly, smiling at the girl.

"Vodka with sprite will be fine." Mizumi said with a bright grin.

"Sure thing!" Takato made a strange, pointing movement with his arm, and vanished into the crowd.

"Let's put some music! Ryu!" a female's voice boomed in the vast room.

"All right, relax Mia." An older male's voice responded.

Takato returned with the glass and offered it to the young woman. Mizumi thanked him and took a zip. It was too strong for her taste but she would never tell Takato, considering that the boy had gone to prepare the drink specially for her. Absently, Mizumi began to sway slightly while taking another, much larger gulp of the drink.

"Are you having fun?" a gentle, familiar voice said next to her.

"I wasn't expecting this! Thanks a lot, Takeru sempai." Mizumi said with bright eyes, staring at the boy happily and gratefully.

"Nah, don't thank me. Thank this people who helped me prepare everything." Takeru motioned his hand in an arch, engloving everyone.

"I sure was not expecting that level of acceptation. I haven't been specially kind to them." Mizumi said shamefully, lowering her head.

"Relax. They understand, they have gone through the same as well. Well, most of them. Takato was a special case." Takeru said with a light laughter, "Ryu was even worse than you. The kid locked himself in his room for a whole month, before he spoke to anyone. Normally he went outside to pick his plate, and walked back inside, in complete silence." At this point, Takeru wore a face of gossip and complice.

"Well, thank you, Mr. Perfect!" Mizumi said punching him playfully on the shoulder, giving him a look of mock hurt.

"Hey, it's true. You haven't been specially easy!" Takeru snapped with a bright smile, "Well, care to dance?" they boy questioned upon hearing a rather slow song.

"Sure!" Mizumi accepted cheerfully, leaving her glass on a nearby table.

Takeru took a gentle grip on her hand and dragged her deeper into the crowd, where there was so many people privacy was much greater. The boy stopped and pulled Mizumi towards him, placing her arms around his neck, only to placed his hands over her waist afterwards. The two began swaying slowly, with the gentle rythm of the music. Various people were dancing as well, one or two couples, and groups of good friends just having a good time.

Takeru's blue eyes were flashing with bright sparkles, glancing at Mizumi's deep blackness. The boy's lips were broken in a vast grin, watching the much aceptation Mizumi was having with the group, and the group was having with Mizumi. The woman was also smiling, but her smile was a much softer, much more gentle one. Cherry lips were glowing like gloss, as a really true smile was, for the first time in sixteen years, being drawn in her lips.

Maybe it was there, or maybe it had been the moment she attacked that poor bush. Whichever second it was, Mizumi changed completely, her growing ended and she finally got over her father's loss to begin a new life. Finally she realized that this life was not that bad, and it was a change to the obsession she had been living for the past years. Right in that moment, Mizumi accepted that her father was gone, and that she had to live her life without forgetting him, but never letting his memory condition her doings.

"Thank you, Takeru." Mizumi said all of a sudden, with such ammount of sincerity it took Takeru off guard.

"For what?" Takeru asked becoming slightly more serious all of a sudden.

"For teaching me that life is a wonderful thing, and showing me that what we are is not a shame, but a pride." Mizumi said, leaning forward and placing a kiss in the boy's cheek.

"I didn't do anything, you found it out by yourself." Takeru said with a slightly more acute voice, yet his blue eyes were friendly and kind as they had always been.

The song ended before they realized about it. Ryu Ishida came over and inquired if he was allowed to dance with the beautiful girl. Takeru accepted with Mizumi's consent, and gave the girl's hand to the handsome, feral boy, his nephew. Takeru retreated to a further corner, where Chiyo was taking a drink, observing everything through her serious, brown eyes.

"Beautiful." Thought Takeru considering Ryu's words, "Sure, I didn't realice, but she is very pretty. It is almost as if she grew all of a sudden, and changed from teenager to adult woman in my arms." The boy thought, slapping himself mentally at how dirty those last words sounded, only to slap himself again and having such a perverted mind.

"I didn't know we did parties every time one of us managed to make his first attack." Chiyo said passively when Takeru sat on an empty chair next to her.

"I know, but she has been having some trouble acepting herself." Takeru responded with a slight groan, remembering the fight he had had with her a month ago.

"Did it work?" Chiyo inquired taking another zip, glancing sideways at Takeru.

"Sure it did. Look at her. She isn't that scared, little girl I found in the Line one month ago, any more. It looks like she has matured, like she has left that worried, troubled child aside and has developed a maturity and adult youth which is eviable. The way her eyes glow this night, and her hair is a little longer, the security in her movements, in her words, in her relation with the rest of the Digis." Takeru said, his eyes glitterig with small, starry blazes.

"Be careful, Tk." Chiyo warned swiftly, dryly, yet staring at him very seriously,

"What? Why?" Takeru was bewildered as her broke his gaze from Mizumi's figure to stare at Chiyo's brown eyes.

"Mizumi is twenty years younger than you are. You could be her father, although you don't look like it." Chiyo comented casually.

"What do you mean?" Takeru inquired alarmed.

"I mean that if Izumi sempai ever knew of this, he wouldn't be the least bit happy." The woman said glancing at Takeru with intensity.

"I don't have any romantic interests on Mizumi!" Takeru protested, staring at Chiyo with disbelief.

"But you do care for her!" Chiyo snapped with emphasis.

"Of course I do! She is Izzy's daughter!" Takeru was starting to get annoyed at Chiyo's insistence, and his attitude was deffensive.

"Are you sure?" Chiyo said very calmly.

At this Takeru was taken off guard. The boy sat very straight when all his muscles tensed. The blue eyes got lost in the crowd, where Mizumi was laughing with a twenty two years old Ryu, chatting with Mia animatedly, playing with Takato. Right now she was being surounded by people her age, and, for a moment, they didn't become Digis, but teenagers enjoying a party. Takeru, on the other hand, felt that churning in his stomach, that sense of protection telling him to do something. Another part of him, his rational mind, told him that once Mizumi had learnt all she had to, she would no longer need him. That last thought hurt him slightly, and the prospect of it was not pleasant so Takeru pushed it aside, and avoided thinking about it.

"After all, sure I'm forty one, because of the year I was born. But in appearance, and in behaviour, I'm just twenty five. I didn't live those fourteen years I lost." Takeru added thoughtfully.

"It's the first time I hear you talking like that!" Chiyo exclaimed really surprised, staring at Takeru as if he had suddenly grown wings.

"It's not exactly easy discovering you have lost fourteen years of your life, and that you've lost the love of your life. I didn't even get a chance, I wasn't given an oportunity. It all just happened, and when I realized, I was still twenty three years old Takeru, while the rest of them had aged!" Takeru snapped desperately, "I lost my youth, Chiyo, I want to get it back!"

"But falling in love with Mizumi is not the solution! Izzy sempai will kill you if he ever finds out!" Chiyo was grave and serious, trying to help Takeru.

"Mizumi doesn't see me like anything else but a father, a mentor, a friend." Takeru said calmly, staring at Mizumi who was saluting him with emphasis.

"That last statement is dangerous." Chiyo said mostly to herself, "Remember, Takeru, she is not Kari. Don't expect that from her because it will destroy you, and you will break her heart." Chiyo was staring at Takeru with a worried expression.

"I know, I know!" Takeru said placing his hands on his head in a sign of frustration, "I really don't like her, Chiyo. Sure, she is pretty and all, and she is changing a lot since she started joining us. And I care for her, I... I do love her, but just the way I love Ryu. Mizumi is like a niece for me." The boy was very serious upon saying this words.

This words said, the boy turned his head and took a gulp of beer before staring at the enjoying group. Mizumi was now playing some odd game with the group, which looked suspiciously like truth, kiss and dare. There was this enormous jealosy blooming like a burning coal inside his heart. Watching those young adults playing and having fun reminded him of how much he had lost. A long time ago he had friends, now he had them but they were stragers. All of them were married, with children, while he was still young a naive. At that moment of his life, Takeru decided to grow up mentally, perhaps to be with them, to feel like he hadn't lost his youth at all. But as time passed, he realized it was all a big lie, and he knew his friends had to do their life, the same he had to make his. Simply, Takeru refused to do that.

"How much I wish I could be playing with them in that moment." Takeru commented casually, making Chiyo stare at him.

"Now who is changing who?" the woman asked, smiling brightly at Takeru.

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AN: Ok, here comes another chapter. In the next chapter we will learn what happened to Takeru, and where is Izzy. Thank you to all my reviewers, in the last chapter I will make a mention to you, like I do in all of my stories. Please, keep reading, I would like to know what you think, and how I could improve the story.


	6. Takeru's Broken Heart

"I'm leaving!" Mizumi snapped excitedly, her long hair flowed behind her like a cascade.

In the past year, Mizumi had changed a lot. From the beggining where she was dark, trustless, suspicious of everything, and obsessed with the search of her father. Now she was a happy, normal person, with a relatively normal life, since she had to stay away from electronic objects. Luckily she had learnt to control it a bit, such that she could still make her computer work. Also, she had changed in appearance. Her hair was now below her shoulders, a cascade of flaming red, and her eyes were always shinning with life in them. There was hope and illusion in life glimering inside her eyes.

"Where are you going?" inquired Kenji curiously, trying to get the tie's knot right.

"I'm off with Takeru." Mizumi explained, slapping Kenji's hands off the tie and knotting it herself.

"With Takeru? You spend a lot of time with that boy, don't you?" Kenji commented suspiciously, staring with mischievous eyes at Mizumi.

"Well, he is a good boy, and I have fun with him. He has helped me a lot as well. I could say he is my best friend." Mizumi said smiling while she gave the last tugs at Kenji's stripped tie.

"Best friend? Are you sure it's not more than that? Because I have a feeling that you like this boy." Kenji commented with a smile, straightening his shirt.

"Like Takeru? Heck, no!" Mizumi looked animated, and alarmed at Kenji's statement, "Any relation between us is impossible, what makes you think that nonesense?"

"Well, just staring at the way your eyes glow every time you speak about Takeru." Kenji said very seriously, yet wearing a gentle, understanding smile.

Mizumi looked sideways as a strange sensation spread through her veins. There was this curious feeling, as if a butterflyy had just hatched in her stomach and had ddecided to crawl and flutter all about it. It was also that annoying feeling that made her head doubt and contradict itself, the way Takeru's gentle smile and warm, blue eyes flashed so lovingly in her mind every time she thought about him. It was almost as if she had idealized him in her mind.

"Anyways, I'd like to meet that boy one day." Kenji said while putting on his coat and picking up a handbag where he carried his laptop.

"What for?" Mizumi inquired alarmed, staring at Kenji as a slight blush crept up her cheeks.

"Relax, Mizumi-chan. I just want to thank him for all he has done for you. He has returned you the will for living, and I'm truly happy about that." Kenji said, placing a hand on Mizumi's shoulder and smiling lovingly at her, "Well, see you later." He finished placing a kiss on the girl's cheek.

Mizumi was bewildered about what had happened. It was true that she had changed a lot, but she believed it was all due to the fact that she discovered she was a Digi. Now, as she checked in the past, back to the very first time she felt happy after her father's disappearance. It had been during the party, feeling the peopple's aceptance, dancing with Takeru. Ever since that time, she was more and more eager each day of going training. Takeru had become her best friend, doubtlessly, but now she wasn't so sure about that. What if Kenji was right? What if she liked Takeru? It was impossible since, although his appearance didn't say so, Takeru was forty two years old.

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A can, a glass bottle, a shoe, and a tiny pin were all blown out by Mizumi's ball of fire. Takeru was sittin under a tree, his hat shading him, protecting him from the rays of sun. The boy was apparently bored, and his eyelids were falling slowly.

"Mizumi, you are a master with that, you are even better than me! Why don't we leave the daily practices?" Takeru inquired, lifting his hat with one finger to stare at Mizumi.

"You think so?" Mizumi inquired, walking next to Takeru and sitting next to him.

"Yes, I think you are really good already. You will kick those Agents' butts if they come close!" Takeru said smiling brightly at Mizumi.

"Thank you." Mizumi said shyly, suddenly remembering her conversation with Kenji that morning.

"What? Are you all right?" Takeru asked sitting more straight and leaning forward to observe Mizumi's face with concern.

"Yeah, why?" Mizumi inquired, staring at Takeru as if he was a madman.

"You look flushed. Maybe it's too hot or something?" Takeru asked gently, moving forward to touch Mizumi's forehead.

"Are you sure you are forty two?" Mizumi inquired, thinking for herself that this boy was such an innocent that he was an idiot.

"Sure, why?" Takeru answered, offended, realizing Mizumi's thoughts.

"No, nothing." The girl said innocently, "that reminds me, why do you look so young?" Mizumi dared to ask that question that had been roaming around her ever since she met Takeru.

"I'd rather not talk about that." Takeru said looking away, his voice was dull and there was this note of intense sadness in it.

"Oh, come on. We have been friends for more than a year already. I want to know!" Mizumi moaned like a child, knowing that, by making him speak, Takeru would feel better.

"Well, all right!" Takeru said surrending to Mizumi's brief insistence, "Come." He said standing up, and offering a hand to Mizumi.

In reality, Takeru was eager to speak with Mizumi about this. There was something that had been nagging him lately, something that was chaging in him, making him grow in a way he hadn't expected, nor wanted. Although he was still fighting against it, Takeru had been acting more and more like his age, his body's age, not his theorical age. In the intensity of survival, the young adults found time to refresh themselves from the constant race, and live a full life. The strange feeling in his stomach, the way he adored being with Mizumi. Takeru still denied it to himself, but he couldn't see Mizumi as a daughter, or a niece any more.

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Kenji was working hard in a large office full of informatic ingeneers. As much as he had gotten to hate computers, he had to admit he had inherited a gift from his father, Izumi Koushiro. Typing like crazy, his eyes red and itchy, concentrated on his work. It was close, it was almost done. The last few codes, and...

"I did it! It works!" Kenji exclaimed, his voice excited upon seeing the results on the screen.

The boy's hands were sweaty, and the telephone was slipping through them as if they were covered in oil. A loud alarm was echoing in the depths of the large complex, but Kenji ignored it knowing it wasn't part of his section. Finally he managed to call the boss, and informed him of the results.

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The screen from one of the library's computer flashed bright white, before fading to materialize Takeru and Mizumi. The boy smiled at Mizumi, seeing how nobody was around. Takeru motioned for Mizumi to follow him, and they began to walk silently past shelves and shelves full of books. Finally, they reached a room which contained newspapers from all times and kinds.

"Let's see... ah, here it is!" Takeru said, drawing out of a rack a very old, yellowish newspaper.

The two children walked towards a table and Takeru placed it on the desk. The boy flipped rapidly through the pages, skipping things that had happened and that today lacked importance. Bill Clinton, may be the next president of the USA. The iberic goat is extict, the last one, a female, perished. Jurassic Park in the cinemas, promises to gather a lot of money. Boy disappeared misteriously.

"Wait a minute!" Mizumi snapped, staring at a chirpy, young face, staring at her in a black and white page.

Still, those gentle, blue eyes were still shinny, still hopeful, and still glanced at her through that loving, caring gaze.

"Takeru Takaishi, 23 years old, licensed in journalism, and worker of this very same newspaper, has disappeared misteriously, leaving no trace." Mizumi read looking bewildered.

"It's you!" the girl gasped with shock, lifting her black eyes from the yellow paper and staring at the boy accusingly.

"I know..." Takeru answered, his blue eyes looking at the floor, his face saddened at the memory, at the events.

The boy raised his eyes all of a sudden. Something warm, gentle and strong was trapping his hand. Upon watching forward, he saw Mizumi's long fingers engulfing his own. The girl's black eyes were sparkling, her lips curled in a gentle, friendly smile. There was this light engulfing her, this trust she evocated in everyone.

"What happened?" Mizumi inquired calmly, smiling at Takeru and mouthing her words softly, gently.

"I changed. The same as you, I was summoned into the Line. It was afraid, I didn't know what had happened to me, I thought I was back... in the Digiworld. I wouldn't go near the shinny doors, I was afraid they would drive me away, somewhere else." Takeru lowered his head and clenched his fists, trying to stay calm. "After two days of roaming through the Line, I decided to give it a try and jump through a door. I was hungry and thirsty, and I hadn't found nothing in which to feed." Takeru's voice strangled at this point.

"Relax. I'm here." Mizumi said softly, listening intently and caressing Takeru's hand.

"I walked out, and appeared back in Odaiba, close to my home. Fourteen years later. I had been fourteen years away. My beloved, Hikari, was married and with a child older than me." Takeru said weakly, holding back tears.

"Chiyo." Mizumi snapped understandingly.

"Yes." Takeru said nodding, staring at Mizumi with crystal eyes. "I had lost my life, my whole life because, in reality, I was 37, although I look like I'm twenty five. I had lost my friends, everything." Takeru was on the verge of tears, his feeligs flowing through them.

"No!" Mizumi snapped standing up and gripping his hands. "You didn't loose your life, Takeru. You can still live your life, from the point where you left it. Maybe a paper says you are a hundred and twenty years old, but it's just a paper. In reality, you are twenty five years old!" her worlds said squishing the boy's hands comfortingly.

"But it doesn't work that way. The Line works this way, if you spend a certain time inside it, time passes differently." Takeru said desperately, standing up and moving away from Mizumi.

"And if the line had boosted you seventy years in the future, would you alk around with a kane and speaking about old battles?" Mizumi said angrily, placing her fists on her hips and looking defiantly at Takeru's back.

The boy tensed suddenly, as thoughts began to run through his mind. Turning around he saw Mizumi glaring at him as if her was an idiot. There was so much truth in her words. How could one creature be so intelligent as to make him see he had been wrong after two years of convincement. It had all been a lie, an excuse to try recover Kari. But Kari was gone, he was still that twenty five years old, naive youth, while Kari was next to her fortys. Watching Mizumi, standing there with that aura of wisdom, that special intelligence, suddenly he realized how stupid he had been. Breaking to a large grin, Takeru pounced on Mizumi and embraced her tightly, making the girl shriek with surprise.

"Thank you!" the boy said, gone all his doubts, gone all the darkness from his heart, gone Kari's love and the shadow her light threw over him.

"You're welcome..." Mizumi said softly, embracing Takeru hesitantly.

What was this? A strange feeling was spreading through her body. It was a rare sensation of peace, of comfort. It was pleasant being in his arms, feeling his warmth next to her, sensing his breath on her hair as the boy inhaled. Takeru's body was tense, suddenly being able to inhale a lovely scent, something between wilderness and warm summer. The way her breath got hold inside the gentle throat. The glimmer of the sun in her deep, dark eyes. The way she licked her lips when they got dry, or how she bit the tip of her tongue when she was concentrated. All those things about her made him smile gently, in a dreamy way. Takeru's eyes oppened wide, as he remembered, all of a sudden, Chiyo's words.

Takeru's ears were alerted by the characteristic, dry sound of various car doors being slammed shut. The boy pulled away abruptly and sstared at Mizumi with a worried expression. Mizumi nodded silently to let him know she had understood the urgency. Glancing at her apologetically, Takeru turned around and headed for the large windows. Outside the traffic was intense, even though the day was threatening snow. A large, black berlina, probably an Audi A8, was parked outside.

"Agents!" hissed Takeru heading straight towards Mizumi.

The boy gripped her hand and dragged her outside the room, leaving the old newspaper sprawled on the table. The two were heading straight for the computer room. Takeru's steps froze right at the base of the stairway. Growling angrily, clenching his fists and holding back the desire to blast them off. Two agents, the woman and a man, were waiting for them, looking proudly at the two Digis below.

"This way!" exclaimed the boy suddenly, dragging Mizumi along, still held tightly.

The two children raced across the library, receiving glares from students and other kind of people. The angents were on their pursue, which only boosted harder glares, full of hatred. Two more agents were blocking the only exit to the windows, perhaps expecting the two Digis leaping through them towards freedom. Surprising everyone, Takeru steered left, towards the main entrance and exit.

"HELP! Digis!" yelled the librarian when her computer's screen rippled as both teens rushed past.

"Attention to all units." The woman spoke through a walkie talkie, "Two Digis heading outside, the trainer from group Betta, and a girl."

Takeru pulled Mizumi along. Right below the library, and in front of them, was an old, victorian castle. There wouldn't be any electronic objects, so it would be very easy to outsmart them inside it. Takeru let Mizumi's hand loose as he motioned at her to cross the road. Both Digis leapt over the cars, receiving a nasty honk from a young woman in a large, wine coloured Berlina. Mizumi stepped on the face of another car, this one a rather impressive, cloudy blue Daimler Benz. This driver was not very glad either.

The Agents didn't stop their pursue. As simple as pointing at a young driver on a red, Renault Megane, with a shooting gun, the traffic had been paralized. Takeru was surprised, and a cold hand extended through his stomach in the form of fear. Sure enough, as the children reached the palace, they were able to find an Agent blocking the entrance, two more at each side of them, and the four agents reaching them from behind.

"What are we doing now?" Mizumi inquired, staring back and forth, and facing the Agent on the door with a look of anger and threat.

"Leave those four to me!" Takeru exclaimed suddenly, glaring at the woman angrily.

Takeru leapt forward towards the group, still facing the woman with a look of pure hatred. There was this painful glitter in the depths of his eyes, the memory of a long, shattered heart. That feeling was half healed, leaving a scar that might never seal completely. Yet, this time, that scar was not of longing, but of betray.

As those feelings bubbled in the pit of Takeru's stomach, his body began to glow and sparkle. Purpleish and blue lightning seemed to run across his body, binding him with chains, allowing him all movement. The whole, slender and manly body, began to glow a pure white, blinding everyone, and calling Mizumi's attention. The glowing star, engloved in chains of lightning, began to grow until it was as long as a small Berlina car, and twice as tall as such vehicle.

"Takeru!" Mizumi shrieked fearfully, staring at the thing that had once been her saviour and one of her closest friends.

To Be Continued...

AN: What happened to Takeru? What is going on? I hope many things have been cleared now. Next chapter, we will know all about Izzy's fate. Keep reading, and please, review. I need to know what you people think, and where I fail. I need to be able to get better at writting, to see all my mistakes. PLEASE!


	7. The Palomino Pegasus

The luminity vanished, being expulsed outwards, like an explosion of life. A pair on enormous, feathery wings, of a creamy golden colour were the cause of this happening, when they oppened abruptly to its full wingspan. A palomino pegasus stood before the Agents, standing on his hind legs, rearing threateningly at the four attackers. The golden, white mane flowed behind him as he tossed his head. The eyes, as Mizumi observed with a gasp of surprise, were those familiar, intense blue colour, bright and young, and so full of hope. The pegasus neighed loudly, and threateningly, snorting as he descended on his four legs.

"Takeru?" Mizumi questioned herself in a silent voice.

"Are you still willing to make our lives miserable?" the pegasus snorted, speaking in clear japanese, the magnificent head lowered and the ears folded backwards in anger.

"I'm willing to destroy you!" the woman said with a smirk, taking off her glasses to reveal a pair of cold, crimson eyes.

"Why? It's not only me, your daughter! Your husband!" Takeru exclaimed horrified, "Aren't they important for you?" the large equine inquired.

"They stopped being important when they betrayed me!" the woman said glaring at the winged horse.

"Goodness, Kari, what happened to you?" Takeru said half horrified and half saddened, "I see Darkness finally caught you."

"Kari?" Mizumi exclaimed, following the conversation with interest. "So this was the woman Takeru was in love with." She thought.

"Life didn't treat me as fairly as it did to you, Tk!" Kari snapped angrily, clenching her fist and taking a step closer.

"Fairly?" Takeru snorted, stomping on the ground with a hoof, "You say this is fair? Being pursued, having to hide, not being able to make a normal life. You call this fair?"

"You deserve it!" Kari snapped, completely furious.

"What? I didn't ask for this!" Takeru recoiled at the woman's remark, shocked and horrified.

"Enough talk already. You are a dangerous kind and must be exterminated." Kari hissed like a serpent, placing her sunglasses back over her eyes, "Men. Fire!"

"I'm sorry, Kari..." Takeru said lowering his head sadly, and tossing it left and right.

The four agents rose their weapons and pointed them at the winged horse, who had his head hanging, and the blue eyes shut sadly. Mizumi would have loved to shout at him, to make him come to his senses. However, three Agents were falling upon her, guns ready to shoot. Without thinking it twice, Mizumi turned around and kneeled on the floor. Aiming her right hand leftwards, and the left one oposite, two large balls of fire were thrown at each Agent, making them fall backwards. Whether they were alive or not, it wasn't Mizumi's interest. The last Agent was glaring at her from a distance of ten metres.

Before any of the Agents could get ready, startling everyone, including the other two combatants, Takeru did something that neither expected. The palomino reared, emiting a loud neigh. Both wings extended, the feathers began to glow brightly. While the three male Agents were bewildered at this effect, Kari was the only one that looked frightened. The woman, around her forties, was recoiling, looking terrified.

"RUN!" Kari commanded in a loud, shaky voice, turning around and running rapidly.

It wasn't that the men disobeyed Kari, but mostly that they were hypntized by something they had never seen. However, they were not that stupid as to stay and see what happened to the equine. Turning around, the men began to flee. Late, however, as they had lost a precious time trying to understand the happenings. The pegasus' large wings were thrown backwards, only to flap violently. A gust of wind was thrown, along with hundreds of shiny, golden shards of light. This luminous arrows pierced the three men's bodies in several places, making them drop dead on the ground.

Mizumi dispatched the last Agent easily, throwing a last ball of fire and making him fly backwards until colliding with the castle's walls. Takeru's equine body flashed bright once again, only to diminish and become human once again. The boy gripped Kari's hand, smiling upon noticing her hand was cold, even although she had just engulfed it in fire for brief seconds. The girl didn't protest and let herself be dragged inside the castle, noticing that several agents were begining to stirr.

"They are alive?" Mizumi shrieked surprised.

"As much as they hate us, they also have special habilities. Unfortunately they have resistance to our powers. Eventually they sucumb to them, but it takes more than one blow!" Takeru explained throughout ragged breaths as they were inmersed in the darkness of an old, victorian palace.

Takeru dragged Mizumi along the dark corridors, descending a long staircase, and penetrating through a hole in the wall. Steps in the distance echoed, dim and weak, as if they were very far away and retreating. The male Digi pushed Mizumi into an old, wooden box, and placed her against the cold, stone wall. Takeru pressed his body over her, observing the entrance with caution. In full alert, the boy's muscles were tense, and the hands were clenched to a fist, pressed on the wall.

There was a strong, residual smell that seemed familiar. It seemed to be floating in the timeless ages of this place, completely inmersed in the darkness of winter days. However, she seemed to be able to smell that same odour directly from Takeru. It wasn't a disgusting smell, more like a heavy, strong scent. In a way it was animalistic and wild, but there was a slight comfort in it. As Mizumi glanced around, she realized a load of things. Although she wasn't able to see much, the filtrating light revealed many things about this place, from leather harnesses to various stalls, neatly divided with wooden fences.

"A stable, how propper." Mizumi thought, recognizing the smell that was lingering in the vast room.

After several minutes where both Digis were frozen, for the sake of their survival, they relaxed visibly. Takeru let the contained air in his lungs flow freely, turning to look at Mizumi with a relaxed smile. Suddenly, the smile faded only to be replaced by a more serious glance, where the bright blue eyes glowed with longing in the darkness. Their proximity was such that Takeru tensed once again, unable to tear his eyes away from the girl's black pits.

"Oh my goodness, she is beautiful..." thought Takeru staring at the young woman with dreamy eyes.

The light that filtrated through the gaps on the wall accentuated her natural beauty. The glossy, red hair, the pale face, the cherry lips and the large, dark eyes. Mizumi noted the way Takeru was staring at her and blushed. There was not a single moment where she pondered he could have feelings for her, yet this was a place erotically arousing. However, while Mizumi denied the possibility of Takeru liking her, there was that blooming, confusing sensation in her heart, where it began to beat more rapidly, and her breathing became more laboured.

"You..." Mizumi began weakly, gasping lightly.

To Be Continued...

AN: Ok, I had to split a long chapter in two because the fanfiction thing didn't load the whole thing. I'm not too glad with that, anyways. This chapter looked good in its whole thing. It's not the first time, and it wasn't that big anyways.


	8. Feelings

"Hum?" Takeru tilted his head at Mizumi's voice.

"You smell like a horse..." the girl said smiling weakly, confused as she was in that very moment.

"Oh!" Takeru gasped alarmed, his cheeks flushing with shame, "Sorry. It comes with the change." The boy explained shrugging shyly.

"No, I don't mind it, I just found it funny." Mizumi said with a bright smile, glancing at Takeru with a light in her eyes he had never seen before.

"Lets go out, I think the danger is over." Takeru said with a smile, placing a hand on her shoulder and beggining to walk away.

The two pushed open a rather large and heavy wooden door. After various shrieks, they were able to open a gap large enough for the two to fit through. The garden in which they appeared was beautiful. The trees were naked, and their trunks were silver and black from the cold. Various blue pine trees stood here and there, and were starting to be decorated with colourful lights and funny looking balls. The wind blew, and although the day was gray, it was refreshing. Mizumi closed her eyes and enjoyed the feeling of her hair being ruffled gently by the wind's caring hands.

"This is beautiful!" she exclaimed, stepping on the stone floor and dancing around the small bushes.

"Do you like this false sensation of normality?" Takeru said with a gentle smile, taking a peek around knowing it was a common passing place.

"It is refreshing escaping reality fro time to time, Takeru sempai." Mizumi said with a gentle smile, taking a strand of red hair out of her eyes.

"Call me Tk." The boy said with a smile, placing her fisherman hat deeper in his head.

"All right, Tk." Mizumi said with a gentle smile, while Takeru's eyes glimmered brightly.

"This place is one of the few I know where electronic can't harm us." Takeru commented, staring around.

"Yes. By the way." Mizumi said calmly, approaching the boy with an innocent expression in her face.

"Hum?" Takeru's attention was called, and his crystal blue eyes were focusing on Mizumi.

"What you did today was impressive. How did you manage it?" Mizumi was staring at Takeru with bright eyes.

"Oh, that. Well, you can do it too, with practice, just the same as your normal attack." The boy said with a smile, scratching the back of his neck.

"Why do we become this... creatures?" Mizumi inquired curiously, motioning with her gaze up and down Takeru's body in a way it made him blush.

"W... well." Takeru stuttered, ruffling his golden hair, "we are half digital, and have some relation with the Digital World, so, the same as our attack, we inherit some Digimon traces." He explained looking at the sky, relaxing visibly, then motioned to explain what Digimon and the Digital World were.

"I know all about that. My father told me when I was a child." Mizumi said smiling with nostalgia.

"Yeah, well, Izzy would explain this things better than me. I was never the brainy type." Takeru explained with a goofy smile.

"Tk. Do you still love her?" Mizumi inquired suddenly, looking down and leftways sadly.

"What?" Takeru was taken off guard by that sudden question.

"I asked if you still love Kari." Mizumi looked tense upon repeating the question. "Why? Why does it hurt so much asking him something so vanal?" Mizumi thought.

"Well, I loved her for a long time, and as you might know, it's hard to forget deep love." Takeru said casually, staring at the grey ceiling.

"No, please, no. Don't say that." Mizumi found herself thinking desperately, as her eyes raised to stare at Takeru's distracted face.

"But Hikari managed to change completely my love for her into sadness and anger. She betrayed us, let herself be tempted by the sweet hands of darkness, and raised her weapons against us. Most important of all, she would be able to destroy her daughter without any second thoughts." Takeru's voice was furious at those thoughts, and his eyebrows narrowed angrily at the sky.

"I'm so sorry, Take... Tk." Mizumi said holding his hand gently.

"Mizumi... why did you ask?" the boy asked as his blue eyes looked down to focus into her black ones.

"Why did I ask?" Mizumi thought as a faint blush began to crawl up her cheeks, "I'm not sure, why would I care if Ta... Tk still loved Kari? Well, obviously I care because he is my friend, and I worry about him. But is there more to it?" the girl thought, not staring at him at all.

"Mizzy?" Takeru said suddenly, making Mizumi tense abruptly, and stare at Takeru as if he came from another planet.

"Don't call me Mizzy, please. My father used to call me that." Mizumi said looking at the floor and rubbing the stones with the point of her boot.

"Mizumi, I'm sorry." Takeru placed both hands on the woman's shoulders, "But Izzy is alive!" he said brightly, looking into Mizumi's eyes sincerely.

"What?" Mizumi said weakly, looking up to meet the boy's blue eyes. There was truth written in them, and a joy that made him glow.

"He is a Digi for the Alpha group. I'm sorry I didn't tell you before, but I had to make sure you were comfotable with yourself, and ready to understand." Takeru said looking gently, and lovingly at Mizumi.

"Oh... Tk." Mizumi's lips broke into a vast smile, and tears began to fall down her cheeks in rivers.

The girl stared at Takeru for several second, happy like she had never been, and more grateful than ever. Sure, she had been a bit annoyed at not knowing this before. Inmediatly, though, she had forgiven the boy as she saw his gentle eyes, and the caring she sensed in him. Mizumi embraced him tightly, and felt him shudder for a moment, before returning the hug with delicacy.

"Thank you..." Mizumi said resting her head on his chest.

A rather violent gust of wind blew abruptly, all of a sudden. Takeru's fisherman hat was blown away from his head by such gust of air, which still persisted with some interest. As Takeru extended his hand in a futile attempt to hold the retreating hat, Mizumi turned to see the white thing rolling across the ground playfully. Without second thoughts she ripped her arms off Takeru's body and trotted towards the hat, fishing it with ease.

"She is beautiful..." gasped Takeru upon seeing the woman's face being framed by her dancing, flaming hair, and her black eyes smiling at him.

Upon catching the hat, Mizumi turned around to face Takeru. The boy's golden hair was being ruffled wildly about. The slightly long strands crowned his head, making his look more childish and innocent than he had been to Mizumi. It was the first time Mizumi saw him without his faithful hat, and she realized he was more handsome she had ever thought. The way his hair was brushed, without a single order, wild and savage, gave him a boyish look. Mizumi never knew what came over her that moment, but she felt like she had never felt before.

"I love you!" she yelled over the wind, smiling at Takeru and placing her hands over her skirt, which was flapping wildly.

Takeru gasped, tensing completely as he heard Mizumi's words being blown at him. The moment was glorious, a time for themselves, for their truth and their reality. It wouldn't last long, as their gift and their curse were to shatter their wonderful world.

To Be Continued...

AN: Well, there comes something else about the story. Like it? No? I am truly enjoying it, and I'm trying to finish all my stories, more exactly Origins in Darkness, this one, and probably The Last Wizard. Anyways, I've got really good ideas for this story, but I think the end is rather predictable. Anyways, please, review and tell me what you think about this. If you don't want to review, worse for you since I'll never get to know you, and I'll never check your stories. I do that, really. I'm that curious. Well, thank you to all reviewers.


	9. Lost Hope

"Yes, that is very interesting, in fact I think I'll just consider it. No, really, I don't like that one, it's too... baddie type. Which? Nah, too expensive, and the motor just doesn't work all that well. Via?" a young woman was happily talking through the cell phone, not watching or even realizing the two Digi's pressence.

Takeru and Mizumi both observed her with care. While Mizumi was glancing at the girl questioningly, not hearing the conversation, Takeru was alert. It was just a matter of seconds before the young girl realized about the two youngsters' pressence.

"Via? Via? I can't hear you. There are some interferences." The girl said, glancing at Takeru through the corner of the eyes, distractedly.

The girl repaired on Takeru and Mizumi more clearly. Taking the cell phone off her ear, she glanced at the two, stopping her paces. The woman's gaze returned to the cellphone, where the screen had gone off, and seemed to be beating with each of Takeru's breathings. Another glance at the two children, and her doubts had been cleared completely.

"DIGIS!" the girl yelled, screaming at the top of her lungs and trying to warn the whole neighbourghood.

"RUN!" Takeru snapped at Mizumi, rushing towards the woman rapidly.

"I've got my moto parked nearby. See you later, Tk!" Mizumi yelled at the boy, running towards a rather large staircase and vanishing behind it.

Takeru glanced at the woman briefly, looking at her with longing. Survival kept nagging him as the woman shrieked again, and various windows from nearby houses oppened with curiosity. The cell phone's screen glowed and the girl, on the verge of tears, and yelling like someone was rapping her, dropped the object on the floor. Takeru vanished through it, leaving the girl about to faint, in the small park behind the palace, and next to the old houses.

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Mizumi was sitting in front of her computer. The woman's lips were split in a large, happy grin. Tonight she would go to the Hideout and finally see her father, meet him after sixteen years of absence. Typing rapidly, barely seeing what she was writting, Mizumi was inmeersed in millions of possibilities of how that reencounter was to be like.

"Mizumi-chan?" a well known, yet abrupt voice said all of a sudden.

Startled, Mizumi leapt on her chair and ripped her fingers off the keyboard. A gentle ripple shook the computer's screen, before it faded as suddenly as it came. Kenji was at the door, staring at Mizumi strangely. It was obvious he had perceived something, yet wasn't too sure about it.

"Onii-chan! What is it?" the woman inquired, staring at the boy with a vivid smile.

"Hi, I just wanted to talk with you." The boy said gently, ruffling his tan golden hair and sitting on the bed.

"Tell me." Mizumi said animatedly, turning the chair to face Kenji.

"I see you are very happy, Mizumi, what happened to make you this chirpy?" Kenji inquired with a gentle, happy smile.

"Oh... nothing." Mizumi blushed lightly, and her eyes glimmered with a light Kenji had never seen.

"Hum... does this have anything to do with that Takeru boy?" the older boy asked with a mischievous smile on his lips.

"EH? No, no, of course not!" Mizumi said just too rapidly, her voice shaking slightly.

"Come on, Mizumi, I'm your brother." Kenji said, watching with interest the reluctant way in which Mizumi was eyeing him. "Do you love him?"

"I think so..." the girl said shyly, lowering her head and glancing at Kenji with a shameful look.

"My little sister is in love, how cute!" Kenji began with an extremely, high pitched voice, teasing the girl.

"Stop it, you dork!" Mizumi snapped angrily, throwing a rather large book at Kenji.

"Ok, ok. Sorry, tigress!" Kenji laughed happily, dodging the thick volume.

"It's not funny!" the woman glared at Kenji upon saying those words.

"Don't take it too seriously. I was just kidding." Kenji commented, clearing his throat before he continued. "I knew you had a thing for the boy. I was wondering what you were doing on saturday, afternoon."

"Why?" Mizumi inquired, a clear look of mistrust being thrown at her older brother.

"Relax, sister!" the boy said with a look of happiness lighting his face, "I just want to meet him. He has helped you a lot, and I'd like to know the man who has given you the will to live." The boy said more seriously, more calm.

"You will like him." Mizumi responded after a few minutes of pondering the request.

"Ok, how about we go for a beer at the Crow's Nest?" Kenji inquired standing up from the girl's bed.

"Sounds fine!" chirped the woman excitedly, as Kenji left her bedroom.

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Takeru landed on a heap on the floor. There had been many emotions for one day, many events, and his body felt drained of energy. Transforming into his Digital Spirit was always tiering and now he was exhausted. It took a great ammount of energy to maintain that form, and another great ammount to fire the powerful attacks, the only ones able to kill Agents in one blow.

"Tk!" Chiyo rushed to him urgently as he stumbled and held on a nearby table for balance.

"I'm fine, you know how this is." Takeru said with a smile, but glancing surprised at the woman. Having her experience, one would have thought she would already know the effects of transforming.

"It's not that, it's the Alpha Group!" Chiyo snapped alarmed, looking on the verge of tears.

"What? What happened to it?" Takeru was now alarmed, and his voice rose higher than he would have wanted.

"We are not sure, but we believe it was attacked." Chiyo explained, stealing a glance at Ryu, who was nearby, with Mia besides him.

"I went to their Hideout, just a rutinary visit to my father, and saw signs of violence in it. Nobody was there, but I believe Agents might have found their Hideout, somehow." Ryu explained, walking towards the two, more experimented Digis.

"But that's impossible!" Takeru snapped, looking completely worried, and glancing backwards with suspicion.

"No it isn't, and you know it!" Chiyo said fiercely, while Ryu just stared at them with his common impasiveness.

"Shit... shit... shit..." Takeru's voice was a soft, hiss like whisper. The boy was turning around and walking as if in a dream, his eyes focusing inside his thoughts. All eyes were on him as slow, heavy paces dragged him away from the three Digis.

"SHIT!" the blond Digi bellowed, slamming his clenched fist on a rudimentary table.

"TK!" Chiyo walked up to him and placed her hands on his shoulders, turning her head to motion at the other Digis to retreat. Ryu and Mia left the room understandingly.

"What am I going to tell Mizumi now?" the boy whined, staring at the table desperately.

"Do you love her, Tk?" Chiyo inquired, staring at the boy's blue eyes, humid with restrained tears.

"I... I do." Takeru admited looking defeated, "I know I shouldn't but I can't hold it back."

"Why not? Why shouldn't you love Mizumi?" Chiyo asked looking at the boy with bright eyes.

"You told me I shouldn't love her..." Takeru stared at Chiyo with surprise.

"I know. But I only did it because you were so stubborn with that ridiculous idea that you were forty, that only by insisting on this it would make that idea weaker!" Chiyo was looking proud at her responde.

"Inverted psychology!" Takeru responded surprised, looking with respect at the older woman, and apparently a bit annoyed at having been manipulated.

"Exactly! I didn't license in Psychology for nothing!" Chiyo stood up, patted Takeru on the shoulder and left the room.

Takeru stood in the dim light for a few moments longer. The boy was pondering about the terrible fate that his Digi mates had run. Veterans, experienced, mature men who knew all about Digis and Agents. It was hard to understand how they had sucumbed to a group of Agents. Even more, how the Agents had discovered their hideout. This events made Takeru think that, if the Alpha group had fallen, they could go down easily. Perhaps it was for the best if everyone returned home, but, where was Ryu Ishida going to go? What about Takato Yagami? Mia Kido? All of their parents were Digis in the Alpha group.

Ryu still had his mother, a gentle, hard worker administrative known as Sayuri Makeda. Takato was not so lucky, both, his father, Taichi and his mother, Sora, had been in the Alpha group. Mia's mother, Sen Lei, a proffesional police, passed away while pursuing a group of retreating terrorists. As surprising as it was, for she was the best driver known, it was later demonstrated that a bomb had been placed under her car. Chiyo, poor Chiyo had the worse luck. A mother who wanted to kill her, and her father gone. No doubt she was so affected. Mizumi? As if responding to his thoughts, the screen flashed bright and Mizumi appeared in the Hideout.

"Tk!" the girl chirped animated, feeling completely ecstasiated.

"Hi, Mizumi..." the boy said sadly, turning to stare at the woman very seriously, thinking hard how to say this news.

"W... what is wrong?" Mizumi's face shifted completely, becoming preocupied as she saw Takeru's long, saddened face.

"I'm sorry, Mizumi, but... the Alpha group was attacked." Takeru said slowly, watching the woman's reaction, and feeling his heart shrink painfully.

"No..." Mizumi whispered softly, looking at Takeru as if expecting him to jump and yell it was only a joke.

"I'm sorry, Mizzy..." Takeru said softly, taking a step forward and oppening his arms to hug her.

"I told you not to call me Mizzy!" the woman shrieked hysterically, slapping his hand away fiercely.

With tears on her eyes, and a painful sob strangling her throat, Mizumi glared at Takeru with a look of betrayal. Letting her emotions flow, Mizumi turned around and started running towards the screen. Takeru tried to stop her, throwing his hand forward and calling her name. Too late, for, in a flash of pure white, Mizumi had vanished into the Line. The boy let his arms fall down at each sode of his body. The feeling he had inside his chest was killing him, millions of craving dogs tearing his soul. Takeru felt like a total jerk.

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Mizumi was sobbing when she leapt off the Line and back into her room. Tears were falling down her cheeks, and her slender fingers covered her face. The grief was silent, for the least she wanted was having Kenji questioning her. In reality she had had a quarrel with Takeru, but she couldn't tell Kenji the reasons, not yet. Suddenly, Mizumi's senses went very alert as the sound of movement reached her ears.

Fear began to strangle her as images of sneaking Agents and silent guns filled her mind. A surprised gasp echoed in the dark night, and the moon's dim light tried to filter through the fallen blinds. Something was inside the room, next to the wardrobe. Something that shouldn't be there. Mizumi took off her shoes carefully, silently, and prepared her hand in case she had to attack. On her socks, the girl walked silently next to her bed, where the light switch was situated.

"Stop right there!" Mizumi snapped fiercely, jumping the last metre, turning off the lights and pointing at the stranger with her hand.

To Be Continued...

AN: Ok, here comes the next chapter. Oh, it's getting interesting, isn't it? What do you people think, like it? Don't like it? I'm loving this story, not my best (I still preffer A Life To Live) but I'm liking it a lot.

QUESTION: What do you think about this story? How would you guys write it? A girl and a boy that love each other, ok? (Insert names there, because I'm not sure). The girl had a car, which was severely broken after an accident, and sent to a car cementery. The girl loved her car, and misses it a lot, so it, somehow, got transformed in a horse and goes searching for her. Now the typical things, love, bad guys making their life impossible, and a horrible desire of the car to become human. Love trio!

What happens when there is a premonition that affects the two seriously?

Well, enough ranting, it's an idea I've got, but I'm not sure which characters I'll use for it, and I wanted to ask opinions. I'm also about to finish Origins in Darkness. Not more than two chapters to go. Well keep reading, .


	10. The Virus

"No! Don't hurt me!" a weak voice said, sounding frightened and shocked.

Mizumi couldn't have expected something more different than the lame thing before her. It was a man, around her father's age. The man had dark, short hair and chocolate eyes. Those eyes looked frightened, sad, and tired. They were swollen, and with dark rings around them. The man was sitting on the floor, protecting himself from the intense light with his empty hands, and looking like a dog that has been beaten up.

"Who the heck are you?" Mizumi inquired, looking suspiciously at the man, and staring at him as if he had ran off from an assylum.

"Me? I'm Jake, Jake Anderson." The man answered with a bright smile, now squinting lightly to finish adjusting his gaze to the luminity.

"Yeah, like that helps much." Mizumi said, although the name did sound familiar to her.

"I expected it would... well." The man answered, looking decieved at that fact.

"Er... right, how did you enter my house, AND, my room for that matter?" Mizumi asked fiercely, still considering calling a psychiatric.

"I'm a Digi." Was Jake's concise, proud answer, and the glimmer in his eyes showed certain liking about his condition.

"Wa... wait a minute, you mean as in... like a..." Mizumi didn't know how to ask this question.

"I mean like a Digi. I can move through the Line, I lived in a Hideout and I've got a Digital Spirit like the rest of us." Jake explained impatiently, looking around.

"That doesn't explain what you are doing here." Mizumi said, still not sure if she could trust this man, Digi or not.

"I was part of the Alpha group. We got attacked by the Agents, it was a new attack, they used viruses to control us, instead of killing us off. Everything was a chaos, we didn't know how to fight this new enemy. I got shot, but managed to enter the line before the Agents could capture me. I came here with the hope that Izzy might have escaped as well, and refuged in his old house." Jake explained, looking troubled, and rubbing his left shoulder distractedly.

"My father is alive?" Mizumi inquired abruptly.

"I believe so, I think they want to use us against ourselves, more practical." Jake smiled grimly.

"But the thing is, how did the Agents find your Hideout?" Mizumi ventured, staring at Jake suspiciously.

"Because I told them..." the man lowered his head shamefully upon admitting his fault.

At first Mizumi wanted to blast his head off with a fireball, believing he was nothing but a traitor. However, something clicked in her mind just in time, something that explained a lot of things. The name, she knew that name, and had heard it more than a hundred times. It was her father's associated at InSysMat-X, and old friend. Not only that, but he was Chiyo's father, and husband to Hikari Yagami. To make matters worse, Kari was an Agent. It made sense.

"Have you been infected?" Mizumi inquired softly, making him know she understood his actions.

"Uhum." Jake nodded rubbing his shoulder, staring at Mizumi guiltily.

"Come on, we have to take you to the Hideout." Mizumi said, motioning at Jake to follow her, as an idea shone in her brain.

"But when the virus affectes me, I'll attack you!" Jake protested standing up.

"We'll see how to solve that out. As far as I know, you bear the formula to the antivirus. Follow me!" Mizumi said with severe authority, dragging Jake into the line by force.

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Takeru was sitting on a chair, his legs open and his face glancing at the ground throughout the gap between his fingers. There was this horrible sensation that he had done something extremely stupid. An even more horrible sensation was filling him, cold and cruel, tearing his soul with ravenous fangs. It was a strong heartache, the miserable feeling that he had lost Mizumi, and deceived her. It wasn't his fault, and he knew, but he couldn't keep from feeling that way.

"TK!" a familiar, excited and breathless voice snapped loudly behind his back, emerging from a bright flash of light.

"Mizumi?" Takeru literally leapt from his chair and turned around in a lightning flash, his voice excited and almost broken by the strength of his feelings.

The man froze before he could say nothing else. Standing next to Mizumi was one of the kindest, most attentive, loving and sacrificed man he had ever met. The burning feeling in his stomach reminded him how much he had envied him, and how much he pitied him, as well as the deep respect Takeru felt for the american. Jake smiled goofishly, looking pale but animated, moving his eyes back and forth in searching manner.

"We still have an oportunity to save my father and the rest of the Alpha Group." Mizumi said proudly and determined, smiling swiftly, briefly at Takeru.

"CHIYO!" Takeru called from his frozen position, eyeing Jake with suspicion.

The woman entered the room rapidly, upon hearing the urgency of the call. Chiyo stopped dry on her tracks upon seeing the man standing next to Mizumi. Seconds of recognition, of doubt, flashed through her eyes. Finally, Chiyo rushed forward and embraced the man in a tight hug, sobbing dry tears on his black suit.

"Dad!" Chiyo said through strangled sobs of relief, "you are alive!"

Mizumi was eyeing the situation with sharp pain stabbing her heart. It should have been her night, Mizumi was to reincounter with her long lost father. Almost wanting to slap herself, Mizumi knew she couldn't resist feeling jealows of the older woman and the fortunate man.

"What happened?" Takeru said clearing his throat, walking next to Mizumi upon seeing her face.

Splitting apart, the two turned to stare at Takeru. Jake explained the whole situation as clearly as he had told Mizumi, rubbing his left shoulder from time to time. From the point where Mizumi encountered him at her room, it was the red head who continued the story. Takeru payed close attention every time, and Chiyo, while being horrified, looked serious and calm.

"Well... from what you have told me, this virus controls the Digi's authonomy, hence making then do the Agent's bidings." Takeru said thoughtfully, staring with seriousness at Jake.

"Yes, Takeru." Jake was looking frightened and pale.

"When does this virus start to work?" Chiyo ventured fearfully, staring at her father with worry.

"I don't know. The rest of the members were taken alive, and conscious." Jake shuddered upon thinking of the executable program he had inside his organism.

"There is just one solution." Takeru commented staring at Jake with a look of sadness, "Locking you until we find a cure." The boy finished upon seeing the expectance in the other's eyes.

"No! He is my father!" Chiyo protested with a shriek.

"Chiyo, honey. Takeru is right. I might become very dangerous for you. It is better if I'm locked away, where I can't reach you." Jake said placing a hand on the woman's shoulder, and caressing the pale cheek.

"Chiyo, lock him away. I've got things to speak with Mizumi." Takeru said calmly, his gentle eyes pleading forgiveness, "I'm sorry things have to be this way."

"All right." Chiyo said calmly, "Mizumi. I have faith in you." The woman added with a gentle smile at the red head.

The two dissapeared through the door, closing it to allow the other two Digis some privacy. Takeru looked nervous and pale, while Mizumi was flushed and shy. There was the memory of her conffesion, and the reality of her strong feelings. Takeru was having similar doubts, and was begging so Mizumi was not angry at him any more.

"Tk..." the girl said softly, daring to raise her black eyes at Takeru's height.

"Yes?" Takeru said just too excitedly, slapping himself mentally at his impulsive reaction.

"My brother wants to meet you. This saturday, at the Crow's Nest." Mizumi said shyly, looking slightly annoyed.

"Sounds fine to me." Takeru said with a gentle smile, looking relieved that Mizumi was smiling again.

"I... I have to go now." Mizumi said softly, her cheeks turning red upon realizing the intense gaze Takeru was sending her.

"Er... good idea. Saturday?" Takeru's cheeks also turned red upon realizing Mizumi was looking flushed and slightly intimidated.

"Saturday..." Mizumi whispered in a way that made Takeru's blood concentrate somewhere else, before vanishing through The Line.

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Takeru was sitting at the terrace. Nobody had still come, so he was taking a cold beer acompanied by a small plate of olives and pickles. The afternoon was cloudy, and cold, but a feeble sun managedd to filtrate its rays through the sky. It had been raining throughout the past days, but now the day seemed to have cleared lightly. Takeru couldn't say that he wasn't nervous, but he managed to look as calm as he could.

"Td?" said a voice, a fearfully familiar voice.

"Oh boy." Thought Takeru letting the beer rest on the wooden table.

"Hello! It's been a long time, hasn't it?" said a mature, cheery, and seriously dressed Davis.

"Sixteen years to be more exact." Said Takeru smiling at Davis, deeply happy to meet him, but slightly annoyed by his pressence in this precise moment.

"Yeah, it's been a long time. You still look the same, it's amazing!" Davis said staring at Takeru with that naive, innocent look.

"Er... yes, I think all of us have matured a little." Takeru said more nervous, taking a large gulp of beer.

"Boy, you know? I thought I saw you the other day, but you disappeared into a cell phone so I didn't have time to talk to you." Davis said shrugging, commenting the fact as if it didn't matter.

Takeru chocked on the golden liquid and coughed. The terrified, blue eyes stared at Davis intensely. There was no sign, not a single demonstration that the boy knew. Actually, this whole conversation seemed very normal to him, as if he was still that young teenager, back in the Digital World.

"Back to the old days, hu?" Daivs said standing up and patting Takeru's shoulder, "Don't worry, I won't say a thing. Boy, I wish we could all be back to the Digital World like before." The boy commented with nostalgia.

"No, you don't." Takeru murmurred staring at Davis as if he had gone completely bonkers.

"Well, I've got a load of work to do. See ya around, TA." Davis said animatedly, and trotted off towards a bank.

"Thanks God for making Davis stupid." Takeru thought solemnly, glancing at the sky with gratefulness.

The boy took another refreshing gulp of his beer and cuddled deeper into his coat. A large, blue Kawasaki leapt out of the concrete into the tiles that formed the pedestrian way. Stopping the roaring of the motor, the proud rider dismounted and took of the black helmet. Mizumi smiled excitedly at Takeru, who smiled back at her with a brightness and a joy that renewed his day.

"Where is Kenji?" Takeru inquired, looking down the street and towards the cross further away.

"Parking his car. That monster of his doesn't fit anywhere!" Mizumi laughed, pointing at a manoeuvring, silver Mercedes ML trying to park on a piece of sandy terrain.

"I never liked that big cars, but I had a feeling for long ones. When I... er... lived here, I remember I had an Audi A8. Don't ask me how I managed to drive that thing, not even I know." Takeru laughed, remembering that blue car of his when he was young.

Kenji arrived with a calm smile, dressed in his office suit and carrying a bag with a laptop in it. The man stared at Takeru and smiled pleasantly, bowing before him and introducing himself. Takeru repeated the movement and sat, observing him closely however. Drinking and chatting, time seemed to fly, from feeble jokes to indirect warnings. Kenji was worried for his sister, it was normal, and Takeru relaxed visibly.

"You'll have to excuse me, I have to go to the bathroom." Mizumi said with a laugh, standing up and retreating.

"Now that we are alone, Takeru, be careful." Kenji said, suddenly very seriously.

"Hu? Why? What have I done?" Takeru inquired calmly, yet staring at Kenji with a slight worry.

"You know what have you done, Digi." Kenji said oppening the bag and showing the laptop, which's screen wobbled and rippled lazily at Takeru's proximity.

To Be Continued...

AN: Another chapter. I think this one was slightly boring, but I believe it'll get more interesting in the following chapters. I've got everything planned out, so don't worry, this won't be one of those stories that loose strength and plot as it goes on. Are you liking it? Not? What do you think? Where can I do it better? Did you know I tend to read my reviewer's stories?


	11. Kenji and the Digis

"W... wait a minute, you know?" Takeru snapped with a nervous, high pitched voice.

"Of course I know, Takeru Takaishi. It wasn't too hard for me to know." Kenji said dryly, starting to shut his laptop, while Takeru's blue eyes stranded with curiosity into the object.

"But it was impossible, how would you know?" Takeru questioned, trying to give himself time to flee if neccesary, and thinking how he could warn Mizumi.

"I remember you. You were a friend of my father, the boy who disappeared. Suddenly you appear, and you look the same as sixteen years ago. How peculiar!" Kenji said slightly angrily, "Just add two and two, and you get the result." Kenji finished, stuffing the laptop into the bag.

"Very sharp, what will you do now? Accuse me in front of all this people? Or simply tell Mizumi of my condition?" Takeru said valiantly, his fingers sparking lightly, safely hidden under the table.

"Don't take me wrong, I love my sister, and I don't want her becoming one of you." Kenji said, feeling slightly frightened at the threatening proximity of a full grown Digi, who seemed to have no shame in exposing his strength in front of all this people.

"Listen, Kenji, Digis are bornt, not created." Takeru explained, looking more relaxed.

"Stay away from her!" hissed Kenji in a menacing warning.

"Mizumi is 22, have you asked her what she wants?" Takeru asked leaning on his chair and drinking the remaints of his golden liquid.

"Does she know what you are?" Kenji asked with a triumphant smile.

"Yes, she does." Takeru said with a smile, one that was simply happy and noble.

"Impossible! She would never..." Kenji began saying, horrified, staring at the Digi as if he had just popped onto the chair.

"Never what?" Mizumi, who had just arrived from the bathroom and was eyeing the conversation with interest.

"Never? Never mind." Kenji sighed, staring at Mizumi as if monkeys were growing on her face.

"Onii-chan, are you all right?" Mizumi asked, sitting on her chair and staring at her brother with a worried expression.

"I'm fine! I just remembered I have to go to work. Can you please take my laptop home?" Kenji said, handing Mizumi the bag with the laptop inside.

"So early?" Mizumi stared at Kenji bewildered, "Well, see you at home, Onii-chan." Mizumi said with a fake, sad look.

"A pleasure, Takeru Takaishi, and consider what I said." Kenji's voice was tense upon bowing at Takeru.

"I will." Takeru said glaring at the man, still maintaining that look as the boy vanished towards his car.

Mizumi was staring at Kenji as he retreated, carelessly hitting the back of his large car against a tree. There was a slight tension in the air, a thickness that she couldn't understand. Takeru was not looking happy either, his hands kept fidling, and his legs shook nervously. Something had him worried, and it made Mizumi preocupied as well.

"Tk..." she ventured with a low, gentle whisper.

"He knows!" Takeru hissed, making sure nobody was around.

"He knows what?" Mizumi questioned, looking slightly annoyed.

"Kenji knows I'm a Digi." Takeru said in a much lower whisper, glancing around again at the empty terrace.

"What?" Mizumi couldn't help but yell at that.

"Shh, listen. He told me to stay away from you, he doesn't know you are... too. However, be careful, he is an Agent." Takeru explained, sweating nervously, and looking pale and shaky.

"An Agent? Impossible!" Mizumi snapped, hence a shadow of doubt was shading her face as she pondered the possibilities.

Takeru motioned at the woman to open the laptop, looking more firm and calm. Mizumi, casting a doubtful glance at Takeru, obeyed. The laptop oppened with ease, there was nothing, no code, no key or anything similar to unlock it, which was surprising. With a gasp, Mizumi began shaking her head, tears starting to fall down her cheeks. There, on the lowest part of the screen, were three letters: ODE.

"I'm sorry, Mizumi, but we have to be careful." Takeru said staring at the woman with a look of simpathy, "Take a look at his files. If he works for the ODE, he might have knowledge about the virus."

"A... all right." Mizumi said swallowing, her throat strangled, tied in a tight knot.

"Take care, Mizumi, better go through The Line. We might be on the watchout." Takeru said rubbing the woman's shoulder, pointing at a telephone cabine, a few metres away from them.

"All right. See you later at the Hideout." Mizumi said still trying to regain her integrity, silent tears falling down her cheeks.

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The blond Digi was looking so worried and distracted he didn't know where he was going. Things were turning upside down in the last few days, and it shouldn't be that way. Normally, the Digis were able to outsmart the Agents, and normally they were stronger as well. Normally you don't have a lovesick Digi enamoured of an Agent, and the brother of a Digi working at the ODE. To make matters worse, the most experimented group had fallen, and he was feeling lost without them.

"Well, well, a lonely Digi walking far away from any digital area. How irresponsible." Said a sneer behind Takeru.

"Well, well, a lonely Agent facing a cornered Digi. How irresponsible." Takeru said, glaring at the woman before him.

"Who said lonely? Attack." Kari, with a smirk, pointed at the Digi, while her right hand fidgeted with something similar to an ugly cell phone.

Out of the bushes, from behind the trees, or falling down the branches, appeared several, dark looking Agents. All dressed in black outfits, the hair from everyone was night blue, or black. The eyes were empty and hollow, also as dark as the shadows. A greyish, unhealthy colour tinted the skin from the five Angents. Four men and a woman, all walking towards him.

"Goodness me..." Takeru gasped, recoiling, recognizing, with a sharp shudder, the five attackers.

They were Izzy, Sora, Tai, Joe, and his brother, Matt. Takeru glared at Kari, shaking his head, stupefied. This was unbelievable, how much hatred? How much pain and suffering? How could someone hold such horrible and strong emotions in that maddening ammount?

"You sold them! YOU BITCH!" Takeru snapped, growling at the woman and rushing towards her, letting all his fury out.

The pegasus appeared where the boy's body flashed into nothingness. The animal tossed his head and golden white mane, opening his wings and flying over the bewildered attackers. Takeru's eyes were fixed on Kari's eyes, his whole body shaking with fury as he readied himself to stomp on her insanity. Kari smirked, making Takeru far more furious. Suddenly, the Angent pressed a button, and said something that passed unheard to the pegasus deaffened ears.

As if someone had stabbed him straight on the chest, Takeru neighed with a shrilly, pained sound. The palomino stumbled on the air, loosing his strength and his balance, and collapsing on the ground with a desperate flap of his wings. After sliding for several metres on the sand, feeling his knees, legs, and chest completely scratched and bleedy, Takeru managed to stand up weakly. Something he had forgotten, or something he hadn't given for granted. All Digis had an ability to drain other Digis of energy. It was one of the reasons they joined forces, because of their catastrophic reaction with each other. The horse turned around and saw, through his exhaustion and lack of strength, a large, black phoenyx flying above him.

"It's over, Takeru." Kari sneered, drawing out something that looked like an extremely long and sharp injection. "Sora!" Kari motioned at the phoenyx to come down.

The bird shrieked loudly, flapping her wings. Descending, the animal's talons clawed Takeru's equine shoulders. The Digi tossed his head, and tried to rear up, attempting to rid himself of the former Digi's pressure. To no avail, for being so weakened, and Sora so strengthen up, Takeru had no chance of freeing himself from the bird's grip. The palomino pegasus felt a stabbing on his left shoulder, and Takeru saw Kari putting the shot on him.

"No..." the horse whispered, shaking his head sadly, "No... Mizzy..." Takeru's equine head fell down in defeat, being followed by the collapsing of his whole, exhausted body.

Izzy's eyes shot open suddenly. The emptiness in them, the hollow and dull appearance, vanished to be replaced by a lively feeling. That name, Mizzy, his Mizzy. Looking around, he saw Tai, Matt, Joe, and a black phoenyx that must be Sora, resembling zombies without a mind of their own. The man knew he couldn't do much just now, so he decided upon prettending he was still being controlled by the virus.

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Fingers typing frantically, a long wire connecting both computer's USB ports. Mizumi was seeking throughout the work files archived inside the computer. It was deffinite that Kenji worked for the ODE, since every single work and pressentation had the symbol and the initials of the organization.

"Project Control..." Mizumi whispered, reading the folder's name.

The woman read throughout the log of the project, and afterwards entered the program to check its uses and its formation. With a cold rush of fear that ran through her body, the woman found what she had been searching. As glad as she was to have found the virus, a hope inside her heart wished she wouldn't have found anything at all that incriminated her brother. Mizumi passed all the information into her computer, for later studying and to program the antivirus.

"Kenji, what have you done?" Mizumi whispered sadly, shaking her head.

Mizumi pulled the cable off Kenji's laptop and disconnected her own. The girl looked sorrowful upon considering what Kenji had done, and what he was doing right now. The man's principles diversed inmensely from their own. They hadn't been specially united, for Kenji always had this jealowsy towards Mizumi. It had been true that the smallest daughter had been Izzy's right eye, but everyone knew he had his greatest hopes placed on the older boy, and brightest at studies. Both children had been bright, but Kenji was specially capable. With a sigh, Mizumi pondered about this new loss.

"Mizumi... what are you doing?" the man entered the room and shut the laptop shakily, looking very pale and furious.

"Are you an Agent?" Mizumi inquired seriously, pushing her chair away from the desk and standing up, accusing eyes glaring at the older programer.

"No, I'm not." Kenji said looking straight at Mizumi's eyes. "I'm just a programer." The man finished.

"But you created that virus!" Mizumi snapped angrily.

"Yes, it's my work at the organization!" Kenji spat as if it was obvious, looking furious while still placing his hands protectively over the laptop.

"Goodness, Kenji, what have they done to you?" Mizumi growled, clenching her fists.

"They are dangerous, Mizumi! You'd do a better work staying away from them!" the man finished shaking his head.

"You don't know them! They are just trying to survive while the rest of the world hate them!" Mizumi's knuckles had turned pure white, and her voice rose to a furious yell.

Suddenly, Mizumi's laptop began sparkling, and the screen rippled in large and furious waves, like a tsunami. Kenji saw this reaction and so did Mizumi, who was far too angry to worry about it. Purple and blue lightning began to arch over the small, black computer as the woman's fury discontrolled. With a frightened gasp, Kenji stared back at Mizumi, his eyes wide with shock, and his mouth gaping in awe.

"Mizumi..." the boy whispered softly, " You are one of them." He affirmed, shaking his head slowly and looking deceived.

To Be Continued...

AN: Ok, here comes the next chapter. I'm going to try and continued Origins in Darkness, my other, unfinished, Digimon fic. However, this one is so interesting it has caught all my attention. Although the ending doesn't convince me, I didn't know of another way to finish this story. Anyways, please, review and tell me what you think.


	12. The Antivirus

"Yes... I am a Digi." Mizumi stood straight, relaxing, and so did the reaction caused on the poor laptop.

"But why?" Kenji stared at her sadly, "Why have you thrown your life off board like that?" he inquired.

"I didn't choose this, Onii-chan!" Mizumi deffended herself, looking slightly annoyed at her brother's disgust, "But, to be honest, this last year has been the best of my life!"

"Sorry, Mizumi, but I don't have a sister any more." Kenji snapped coldly, retreating through the door and vanishing into the darkness of the corridor.

Mizumi let her shoulders fall tired. This was not what she had expected, this wasn't going the way she would have wanted. Mizumi always thought her brother would get to know it, eventually, and he would be by her side. Who would have thought she would be enemy with her brother, her only brother. With a sigh, Mizumi sat once again in front of her computer. There was a lot of work to do, and the sooner, the better. Suddenly, the computer's screen faded into a total darkness, as if she had turned it of. At first, the woman got scared, thinking that her uncontrolled anger might have ruined the laptop, and all the contents in it.

"Mizumi!" green letters began to appear.

"What?" Mizumi gasped watching how her laptop was comunicating with her.

"Mizumi, are you there? I'm Ryu!" the letters spoke.

"Ryu..." Mizumi laughed softly, glancing at the letters with a smile, "How are you doing this?" Mizumi typed on her screen, trying the most obvious solution.

"No time to explain now. Come to the Hideout inmediatly, it's urgent!" Ruy typed furiously, the green words looking desperate.

"On my way." Was Mizumi's concise and direct answer.

Without loosing a single second of her time, Mizumi picked her laptop and penetrated The Line. Whatever was going on, it was bad, very bad. The red headed woman rushed across the digital ways at a fast run, loosing her breath and waisting no time. There was the door, flashing white and bright as always. Mizumi's heart started beating rapidly, worry freezing her veins. Something was wrong, she could sense it.

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Ryu stood before the computer screen, at a good distance, observing it through his bright, blue eyes and with his arms crossed. Although the man looked impassive, the shadow floating over his eyes demonstrated he was worried. The wait wasn't long, for minutes later the screen began to glow a blinding white light, and the figure of a woman materialized in front of Ryu.

"I got the data!" Mizumi exclaimed as she regained her phisical matter, "What happened?" she questioned, glancing around fearfully, expecting to see Agents coming from behind the wires and the thick tubes.

"That's great, Mizumi." Ryu said, though his voice denoted he was troubled by something.

"What happened, Ryu? Where is Tk?" Mizumi inquired more preocupied, realizing that the man was nowhere in the room. Nor were Mia, Takato and Chiyo, but that was not that special.

"Takeru... was captured by the Agents." Ryu sigued, shaking his head sadly, "I'm sorry."

"No..." Mizumi's voice was weak and strangled, "NO..." the woman's voice became a mixture between a desperate yell and beastly shriek, which sent goosebumps coursing through Ryu's skin.

Mizumi collapsed on a heap. Hugging her laptop strongly, as if that was the last achor to the great life she had just lost, Mizumi let her grief flow in the form of large tears. Not only had she lost her father deffinitely, but her brother was her enemy, and Takeru had been captured. Tk, her friend, mentor, and the only man she had truly loved.

"I believe this is the end. We should tell the people and leave the Hideout. Travel somewhere else, perhaps rustic China, somewhere where the Agents can't detect us." Ryu suggested, while clearing his throat several times to maintain a control over his emotions.

"NO!" Mizumi snapped severely all of a sudden, raising her eyes and caressing the laptop, "It is not the end. We have the cure, and we have the power. It is time to fight!" Mizumi affirmed valiantly, standing up and looking serious and determined.

"But how? The good players are on the other team!" Ryu said sardonically.

"Making them from our team once again!" Mizumi said with a clever smile, situating her laptop on the table and sitting before it.

Ryu thought she had gone bonkers. However, he knew better than to go against the principles of an enamoured woman. Turning around to leave Mizumi at some peace, the blond man went to check on Chiyo, who was guarding her father's caje.

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Mizumi had been working all night. The black, gentle eyes, were all trailed with red veins, puffy, and had began to ache. Dark rings were crowning the puffy, swollen skin below her eyes. A rather nasty headache was puncturing her forehead and her temples. It was no secret that she was exhausted, but a pleased, happy smile was crossing her lips. There, she had managed it, the antivirus had been created. It was simple now, just materialize this antivirus in the form of injections, the same the Agents had done with the virus. That last thought made Mizumi think, if only Digis could materialize digital data, how could they have materialized the virus?

"There, done." The woman said through a stiffled yawn while picking one of the large shots.

"Is this the Hideout?" the laptop's screen went black again, and green letters began to appear.

"Depends. Who are you?" Mizumi typed suspiciously, although Digis could do this, the Agents had now a whole team of Digis under their control.

"I've got inportant information about the virus." The stranger typed, rapid and creating various typos.

"I listen." The woman answered dryly, yet interested.

"The antivirus might be enough. However it will take some time to work. To make things faster, a significant word, something important, will make the affected recover full mind control. However, that is not enough, the virus is still inside and the affected might fall again." The stranger typed, the sentences so rushed they ran over each other confusingly.

"Thank you for the information. Are you a Digi?" Mizumi inquired curiously, smiling gently, more animated than she had been at the beggining of the night.

"Yes. Listen, I don't have much time. They might discover me." The stranger was, apparently, worried.

"Just one thing, how did you discover that significant word?" Mizumi quiestioned, as fast has her fingers could write.

"Because Takeru pronounced it." The computer responded, more slowly.

"Takeru? He is alive!" Mizumi shrieked with joy, yet she had always been hopeful, "One last thing, out of curiosity, which was that significant word?" Mizumi inquired, smiling softly.

"You." The stranger typed after several seconds of silence, which made Mizumi believe that the Digi had left the line.

"Daddy?" Mizumi whispered, realizing now who the stranger was.

The computer returned to normal. Izzy had left the line, and Mizumi simply prayed that he had vanished for his own security. It didn't matter, he was alive and it was all that Mizumi cared for at the moment. Tears of joy were falling through her cheeks in rivers, and a happy smile was spreading across her lips. Glancing at the shots, the woman understood now what had to be done. Determined, rubbing her cheeks and eyes rapidly, Mizumi picked one of the injections and walked out of the room.

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Depressive looking, saddened, seated on the floor with her arms hugging her knees, Chiyo vigilated her father's uneasy slumber. It was like watching a man at a hospital, who has most chances of passing away. Jake was looking so ill, his skin was gray, and his hair was a night, bluish black. Slowly, his eyes, now closed, had turned hollow and souless. Chiyo was desperate, in her blank and impassive features was hidden a stumbling hope.

"Chiyo..." whispered Mizumi, not too sure of how to enter the woman's intense concentration.

"Hum?" Chiyo turned to look at Mizumi, her eyes so swollen it almost seemed that she hadn't slept in days. "Oh, hi Mizumi." The woman said lacking all sentiment, turning once again to watch the sleeping man.

Mizumi approached the woman timidly. It didn't take her long to see that, curled in a corner, on the floor, was Ryu deep asleep. It seemed that he had tried to give Chiyo some company, but eventually he hadn't been able to keep his body functioning. It was odd. The man was sleeping on the floor like an animal, and he didn't seem to care any bit. Shrugging, Mizumi returned her attention to Chiyo.

"Chiyo, I've got the antivirus." The younger Digi said with a smile, showing Chiyo a shot on the palm of her open hand.

"Mizumi..." Chiyo said, staring at it with bright, hopeful eyes. "You did it!" it was the first time Mizumi had seen Chiyo smile with so much sincerity.

With a smile, Mizumi nodded proudly. No more words were crossed, and the red headed opened the metallic barred door to enter into the jail like room. Jake oppened his eyes and eyed Mizumi with studious glances, like a bad tempered feline, waiting to see what the woman would do. Mizumi stopped, stared at Jake for a moment, cold, nervous yet keeping herself as tranquil as possible.

Suddenly, Mizumi leapt forward and injected the shot on Jake's left shoulder, the same one where he had been punctured to introduce the virus. The man growled like a wounded beast, and stood up, glaring at the woman angrily. A beam of shadow was shot at Mizumi, who leapt aside and rolled on the floor, evading it easily. However, that movment got her cornered against two walls, trapped into the fussion of the two lovers. Jake was aproaching slowly, like a cat, calculating, knowing that the last blow would be the triumph for him.

"Chiyo, tell him something, HURRY!" Mizumi shrieked desperately, staring at Jake with slight fear.

"But what? Why is it not working?" Chiyo questioned, looking worried at the situation inside.

"It does, just takes it time..." Mizumi explained through a high pitched voice, pressing her back harder against the cold, greasy wall. "CHIYO!"

"Papa, daddy, it's me! Chiyo!" the woman attempted, lookign with horrifed eyes that it wasn't working.

"Think something that might have been important for him!" Mizumi yelled, turning her head sideways as the man approached, crouched on the floor, ready to kill.

"Something important, something important..." Chiyo mumbled, looking at the interesting tiles on the floor, licking the index finger of her right hand.

"CHIYO!" Mizumi was desperate now, her eyes had been shut tightly as Jake pounced on her.

"I know!" Chiyo exclaimed, raising her humid finger to point at the ceiling, "I knew you'd return, Papa!" the woman said, putting the most innocent and childish voice she could manage.

As soon as if started, it stopped. Jake's body sparkled for several minutes, engulfed in a current of bluish and purple electricity, lightning circling his body. The healthy, creamy colour returned to his cheeks and skin, and the night hair was replaced by his normal, chocolate hair. The most important fact was that he had recovered that glimmer, that spark of life in the depths of his eyes.

"Where am I? What happened?" Jake inquired, looking at his untidy body, and staring at the jail.

"You are at the Hideout!" Mizumi said through ragged breaths, gasping to recover the air, and to calm her beating heart.

"Mizumi... what?" Jake questioned, before turning around and seeing Chiyo.

"You are cured..." the woman affirmed, seeing how her father looked healthier than ever.

Suddenly, Jake remembered everything to the point where the virus took control of him, activating his most primordial instincts. With a bright smile, the man exited the jail and embraced Chiyo tightly, kissing her cheek lovingly and feeling the woman's tears moistening his rusty shirt. Mizumi smiled at the two, now half recovered from the tension and the knowledge that she was going to perish. Now she was eager to live that reincounter with her father... with Tk. As her heart twsted with a sharp ache, Mizumi knew certainly that she loved him much more than she had expected.

"Who is that?" Jake asked, watching the sleeping form of Ryu, still curled in a ball, and still on the floor.

"That? It's Ryu!" Chiyo said with a gentle smile, knowing her father was very forgetful sometimes, "Ignore him." She finished.

Mizumi laughed, covering her mouth with her hand. It was odd to see Chiyo behaving like a proud teenager, instead of the dry, cold and distant woman she was normally. Shaking her head, Mizumi walked out of the jail towards her chambers. Tomorrow would be a busy day, and they all had to rest. In the morning she would inform them of the plan she had in mind.

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To Be Continued...

AN: Which is the plan? Will it work? Will the Digis manage to save the other ones? Who created the shots? Deffinitely this is having more chapters than I expected. And I still didn't get any responses about THE CAR, the fic I was planning on writting. Also I'm not sure if you people are liking it, because none of the readers reviews to tell me. Well... guess I'll have to stop writting this, like I did two years ago. sigh


	13. The Plan and The Secret

The telephone cabin flashed bright, and, throughout the speaker exited the figure of a slender, flaming headed woman. Mizumi placed a loosed strand behind her ear and sigued. It was midday, and the street was crowded. A loud crash didn't manage to call her attention, and the poor innocent who was driving the Toyota Prius was enraged to see the back of his car completely smashed by a bus. Silence and murmurrs were everything heard, as people eyed Mizumi curiously.

"Well?" the woman questioned, furrowing her brow and staring at the numerous curious.

"You... you... you..." someone ventured to say, pointing at Mizumi with a trembling finger.

"Yes. I came out of the telephone cabine, and yes." Mizumi snapped angrily, turning to face a woman who was about to question her, "I'm a Digi." She finished, glancing everyone.

It was like a domino reaction. Suddenly, people began to swear, scream, shriek, and run all about the place. With a smirk, Mizumi saw the Agent's car approaching. They had detected her, perfect. Loosing no time, opening her way through the people without really needing it, since the crowd was moving aside, avoiding being in contact with the perilous being. Mizumi leapt on her moto, which had been parked next to the terrace since yesterday afternoon.

The motor began to roar and the Digi fled throughout the streets, making complicated and dangerous manoeuvres. The Agents followed her, placing a siren and blue, sparkling lights to make the cars move aside. Mizumi was happy with this, the plan was working perfectly. Pretending to be dodging them, the girl rode into a sandy path, going through it for several metres until she stumbled over her moto and made it look like she had fallen off.

"Oof..." Mizumi groaned, rubbing her back.

"Stupid girl, thinking you could evade us with that thing." Kari said, sneering at Mizumi and looking at the fallen vehicle with disgust.

"Sod off, bitch!" Mizumi spat, standing up and glaring at Kari angrily.

"You know? It's not too smart for a Digi to get to a place like this, with not escape, alone." Kari snapped with a smirk, "Ask your friend, Takeru, he knows what I'm talking about. Oh wait! He can't, he is working for the ODE now!" the woman said with a satisfied smirk.

"You know? It's not too smart for an Agent to face a cornered Digi, we can be dangerous." Mizumi said, talking in a complice like way, yet smirking.

"How curious, your lover, Takeru, just said something similar when I caught him." Kari said with a fake, gentle face, "How sweet, you two are made for each other. It will be so romantic when I capture you."

"You and which army?" Mizumi inquired, throwing her shoulders back and clenching her fists, proudly.

"Don't underestimate me, girl." Kari said angrily, starting to get frustrated, "Kenji!" the woman called.

With a gasp, Mizumi saw her brother coming out from the large van and rushing towards the woman. The laptop was firmly held in a tight grip. Never did he bother to steal a single glance at his sister. It really was like she never existed, and that hurt Mizumi. After all, it was her brother.

"I want to explain a few little things before I finish you off. First of all, I am the ODE president, the boss, the master, whichever name you want to call me. However, neither I am the first Agent, nor you are the first Digi. For generations, Digis and Agents have been fighting, just anciently they were called Mages, Witches, Wizards, Sorcerers, and Hunters, Inquisition, Priests, etc." Kari explained calmly, considering this lesson important.

"Is that the reason why we have to kill each other? Because we have been doing it for generations?" Mizumi inquired sardonically.

"No, it's the same as the lion and the zebra. Eventually the zebra sucumbs to the predator. You, my dear girl, are the zebra." Kari said dryly, "As for the virus, well, you were becoming a pest already. Our powers were so even it took us years of fighting until one of you sucumbed. You were becoming so annoyingly powerful we didn't know how to fight you any more. So we thought of the possibility of creating a virus, an informatic virus, to control you, instead of destroying you.

Now we had a problem, we could create a virus, but we couldn't create it phisically, on the real world." Kari explained angrily.

"Of course, you don't have the power of controlling the digital data." Mizumi said smartly.

"Exactly. Only Digis have that power, so we needed a Digi, one that was latent, one that still hadn't developed his power fully, one who didn't know what he was and who would eventually hate Digis, if we persuaded him of your evil." Kari was smiling proudly at this.

"Master?" Kenji was now listening very sharp and attentive at Kari, looking thoughtful. Mizumi was eyeing Kari with full attention, wanting to know where the woman was getting at.

"Hush, Kenji. That is how I found your brother, the end of career exams made him a little tense." Kari winked at Kenji, who was looking terrified, "Perfect, an intelligent informat, who has just finished his career, and son of the most brilliant informat of the world. We just told him what he had to do, and he did.The results were splendid!" Kari was looking at Kenji proudly.

"Kenji..." Mizumi whispered, turning her face to stare with disbelief at Kenji, "You knew?" the girl inquired.

"No, I swear I didn't know!" Kenji was shaking his head violently, staring at his hands fearfully, pure horror crossing his face and cold sweat trickling down his skin.

"You knew something was happening to you!" Mizumi affirmed with deception, "And you still hate us, even more! You created a thing to control us! You saw it being used on Dad, and you didn't do anything to help him!" Mizumi growled more angry by the moment, tensing visibly, and inflating her chest with fury.

"Sister, I was afraid... I..." Kenji stuttered, staring at his sister in a pleading way.

"Sister? Now you have a sister!" Mizumi snorted despectively, "You were afraid? I was afraid, I spent a whole month locked in my room after I found out I was a Digi, and Tk managed to make me love this life! And you go and start to work for the enemy, knowing you might be a Digi, suspecting that Dad was a Digi as well. Your stupid virus ripped him from my side, but know what?" Mizumi was crying at this point, her voice raised to an angered yell, "You won't manage to keep him away from me, Kenji, because I love him!"

There was a flash, and explosion of fire that engulfed Mizumi. Kenji was frightened at first, but Kari was completely terrified, observing how the ball of fire was growing slightly, more in bulk than in height. Making a spiral, the flames consumed themselves, vanishing around the mysterious creature that had replaced Mizumi. The beast was large, like a small horse in size. A sharp, cruved, golden beak was open as the animal breathed heavily, almost as if it lacked air. The lion like body and the hawk head was covered by a coat of flamming red fur, while the head was crowned by a spiked crest of igniting feathers, with golden tips. The claws were sharp and curve like persian daggers, the lion twil swayed back and forth, and the large wings trembled lightly. The animal stared at her clawed hands curiously, glancing back and forth at her body with the black, deep eyes.

"Mizumi?" Kenji ventured, yed received only a loud, angry shriek from the griffin like creature.

"Do not fear, my dear Kenji. All Digis can transform into those aberrations." Kari said holding Kenji's forearm, while observing the griffin with a look of sitisfaction, as if it was her own creation.

"Don't touch me!" Kenji spat disgustedly, pulling his arm away from Kari's touch and staring at her with hatred.

"Fine! Have it your way!" Kari glared at Kenji angrily.

The Agent drew out a remote control from one of her pockets and pushed several buttons. Inmediatly, an army of Agents appeared, walking like brainless zombies out of the car, only to do the woman's bidings. Mizumi shrieked. They were not Agents, but Digis being controled by the virus. Seeing Jake was bad enough, but seeing a whole troop of six Digis walking towards her was heartbreaking. There was Izzy, her father, walking like one of them. Suddenly, the man winked briefly, and smiled swiftly at the girl. Had it not been for how strange it would look, Mizumi would have shrieked with joy. Instead she remained impassive and stared back an Kari.

"Now for my last, little surprise!" Kari was enjoying the torture impossed on the girl.

The girl gasped, and her wings oppened a little as the last Digi walked out of the car. Looking full of anger, the former blue eyes had turned dark, dull and empty. The blond head, the short, golden strands were falling in dark, velver blue over his face and skin. Such skin was a tint of light, ash gray, making him look sick, unhealthy. The Digi stood before Kari, glaring at Mizumi and clenching his fists, prepared for battle.

"Oh... Tk." Mizumi whispered, staring at the boy with saddened eyes.

Kenji looked away shamefully. Seeing his sister suffering like that, her heart shattered in a million pieces. The worst part of it was the knowledge that this was his fault. Takeru would not be like that if he hadn't accepted that job. If he hadn't been so foolish as to allow himself being convinced that Digis were the enemy, and that his odd abilities was a slight contagious dolence, cause of being so close to computers. The boy's brown eyes opened wide. Down in the forest, hidden in the foliage, was people. With a smile, Kenji moved farther from Kari and waited. Perhaps he would have to say a lot of sorries, and clear many things, but he would be out of that brain washing sect.

"Let me introduce you your sunset, Digi!" Kari laughed, fidgeting with the remote control.

Takeru yelled incoherently, his body flashed and grew in size. Leaping from inside the brightness, a grey horse with a bluish black mane appeared, neighed violently. Mizumi looked at the former palomino with fear, his eyes were completely dark, hollow, and the hatred that had been programmed in him seemed to burn, reflected in those black orbs.

With a wild neigh, the pegasus pounced forward and opened his wings, starting a flight towards the fire griffin. Mizumi shrieked with an acute yell, and oppened her ruffled wings, shaking her beak from side to side. It wasn't like she had ever flown beffore, but a vigorous flapping of her wings, and a loyal faith on her instincts, the female Digi was on the air. Takeru was far more experienced as they battled, and it added that Mizumi was trying to do a diversion manoeuvre to avoid hurting him.

"TK, it's me, Mizumi!" the griffin shrieked desperately while turning upside down on the air to let her body fall and spin before touching the ground.

To no avail, for Takeru was still determined to battle. Looking in a state of pure fury, the gray pegasus pursued a retreating Mizumi, who kept shrieking names and sentences at the creature with desperation. From the depths of the foliage, with a call to battle, the rest of the Digis came out and began to fight Kari's zombies. At a single order from the Agent, the slave Digis began to battle with the same fury their enemies were showing.

Kenji was horrified at the scenery before him. The guilt was shaking him vividly, and his skin was pale and sweaty, his sould mortified by the knowledge that this was all his fault. Watching Mizumi evading her lover's attacks, trying to make him recognize her with all her efforts, the sadness in her black eyes. All those things made Kenji shake with sorrow. There was nothing he could do, he knew nothing of his power or possibilities.

"Wait!" Kenji said to himself, the light of realization illuminating his brain, "I do know something about Digis." The boy muttered staring at the laptop.

Opening it rapidly, the boy began to type furiously, while sustaining the small computer with the left arm. A few moments later, the file had been programed, not he just had to execute it. Glancing at a map, staring at the large animals, Kenji calculated rapidly. Pressing enter, just when he thought it was the exact moment, the boy materialized the code he had activated.

Mizumi flew rapidly, dodging with tired wings another of Takeru's attacks. The griffin was not conscious of the battle below, or of her brother, or anything else for that matter. Every fibre of her body had been placed in the laborious attempt at returning Takeru's conscience and surviving to tell the tale. With a bluish glow, several sparks, just as she flew without noticing the oddity, a peak of ice of enormous proportions grew. The pegasus neighed loudly and flapped, just avoiding the sudden attack.

"NO!" Mizumi shrieked, stopping her flight and watching Takeru glide lazily, recovering from the shock of the attack, and the slight touch of ice on his hooves.

"Stupid Kenji!" Kari snarled angrily, "I gave you a glorious oportunity, and this is the way you repay me?" the woman drew out a gun and aimed at Kenji.

The boy was staring fearfully at the woman, who was threatening him with a gun. Looking weak and inexperienced, Kenji raised his right arm in a sign of submission. Kari smirked, enjoying every second of Kenji's suffering. The woman's index finger began to pull the trigger, that venomous smile of satisfaction being apparent on her lips. Before Kari knew what had attacked her, a purple, sparkling ray of electricity hit her hand, burning it and sending her gun flying away.

"AH!" the woman gasped painfully, holding her burnt, left hand with her other, while hissing about her skin's achy feeling.

Without mourning about her damaged hand for long, Kari turned to look at the direction where the lightning came from. It couldn't have been more shameful, and more surprising than it was. Standing proudly, next to a very lively Jake and a joyous Chiyo, stood the most intelligent man she had ever known. Izumi Koushiro smiled at her from the distance, his left hand sparkling with the possibility of a second attack. Kari wanted to yell, from all the people she shouldn't have subestimated, and she didn't consider Izumi to be a dangerous oponent once being controled by the virus.

"Stupid Izzy, the virus is still inyour veins, I can always regain control of your body!" Kari yelled with a smirk of superiority, drawing out her remote control.

The man had no need to answer. Without saying a single word, Izzy grabbed the injection from Chiyo, and showed it to the Angent. Kari squinted her eyes to glanced at it more properly, to recognice it from the distance. Terror appeared in her pale features, her face shapeshifted with horror. Knowledge reached the Agent's brain, as the woman finally guessed what Izzy was raising with such pride.

The man applied the shot himself, gasping in silence at the pain. Moments later a current of electricity rushed across his body, changing his gray skin into his red headed pale one, his night hair into a crown of flames. Kari looked around, scared to even glance. With fear in her eyes, the woman saw various Digis waking up from their mindless state, and another being stabbed by the injection.

"NO!" Kari shrieked, real suffering touching her face, "My plan, my perfect plan!" the woman yelled.

Nobody knew why, but her eyes landed on Kenji's innocent figure, "It is all your fault!" with a cruel sneer, Kari demanded, glaring at Kenji.

The boy stared at her questioningly, wondering why it had been his fault that she had failed, when it had been him who had, unknowingly, aided her to gather that much power. However, the vice, the madness glinting like crystal in her eyes, it was far more scary than the calculating, cold and cruel Kari. Kenji recoiled when the female Agent fidgeted with her artifact, making Takeru neigh loudly and flap his wings.

Mizumi knew inmediatly what Kari had commanded. Takeru flapped his wings and flew towards the small and frightened Kenji, who just didn't know where to hide his shaky bones. Without thinking twice, Mizumi folded her wings and let herself fall towards her brother. With a neigh, Takeru raised his head and flapped his wings, firing a collection of sharp, golden and luminous darts. Kenji shrieked, covering himself uselessly with his arm.

Just in that moment, Mizumi extended her wings, turned around and landed right in front of her brother. Valiantly, with a shriek, the female Digi inflated her chest, glaring at the sharp, golden thorns with pride. The darts cut her body, penetrating her, slashing her skin and flesh, and making all the gashes itch and hurt. Mizumi shrieked, and her body collapsed. Blood was oozing from all the wounds, not fluently but enough to tint her feathers with a dark, crimson colour.

"Mizumi!" Kenji let himself kneel on the floor and touch the griffin's neck.

Mizumi glowed, while inhaling large mouthfuls of air, and diminished in size. Once the light had faded, the human woman was laying on the ground, still bearing various gashes, none of which seemed grave. However, she was feeling completely exhausted, never having been so tired in her life. Somehow she believed this had to be normal, since maintaining the animal figure for so long must have burnt down all her energy reserves.

The woman glanced around. A thick silence, a tense stillness had spread throughout the battlefield. All eyes were on her, staring at her figure with curiosity, worry and expectation. Izzy was preocupied, but ignored whether his pressence would be neccesary at that exact moment. The former palomino landed, and stared at Mizumi through those empty, dull, black eyes, snorting and pawing on the ground.

It was impossible, Mizumi had tried all formulas, all words, all sentences to make him recover his personality. Nothing had worked, neither her name, nor his own, nor had anything from what Mizumi had told Takeru. Glancing at him from her laying position, Mizumi felt like crying. The empty feeling spreading across her stomach, the sensation that she had lost Takeru forever, like she had lost her father. The knowledge that she loved him more than anything, that Takeru was the man who had managed to change her into a more joyous, less obsessive person.

The black eyes, that had been closed at this train of thoughts, snapped open abruptly, with realization. Mizumi stared at the horse, who was still and observant, glancing at her with patience, waiting for another fight of the same proportions. The woman's lips parted into a grin. It was one chance in a million, but it was worth a try. After all, she never got a response. Before Kenji or anyone else knew what had happened, Mizumi stood up in a leap and sprinted towards the pegasus. The winged stallion reared, while neighing furiously, showing his hooves in a sign that he was going to use them as weapons. Mizumi began to stop her race, extending her arms right in front of the wild animal.

"I love you!" Mizumi yelled loudly right when the stallion dropped his weight to stomp the girl with his hard hooves.

Mizumi shut her eyes tightly and waited for the impact.

To Be Continued...

AN: Ok, another chapter. What will happen next? I hope you are all liking it, because nobody is telling me anything and I'm not sure. One more chapter to go, if I feel like writting it... maybe I should focus on my other stories.


	14. Reunited

The impact never came. The woman had clenched her eyes tightly, perhaps as a reaction, but also with the knowledge that the enormous horse would transform the girl into a stamp on the floor. Instead of that bloody premonition, Mizumi felt a pair of gentle arms embracing her. Surprised, the girl opened her eyes and turned to stare at the mysterious hugger. Takeru's eyes were staring at her from that demacrated, gray skin and velvet blue hair, those dark blue lips smiling gently.

The eyes were back to being vivid, they had transformed into those bright blue orbs she knew and loved so much. They were staring at her with so much love. Mizumi smiled gently, feeling warm tears trailing down her cheeks like minuscule, salty streams. The whole group of Digis were starting at her with a discrete smile on their lips. Kenji was glancing at the both with a pained look of guilt, wanting to beat himself for his stupidity. Even Kari seemed touched, the glimmer of a memory appeared in her cold, cruel eyes, the spark of an emotion long gone seemed to shimmer in her insides.

"I'm sorry..." sobbed Mizumi, drawing out her right hand and throwing it down to stab Takeru on his left shoulder.

The boy gasped for a brief second, suddenly feeling the pain of something sharp being stabbed on his arm. The boy retreated from Mizumi's side, staring at his shoulder where a small, weak line of crimson blood trailed warm and sticky from the wound, a neat, perfect hole. Takeru glanced at Mizumi and saw she had an injection on her right hand, a calm smile on her lips, wet with the tears that had fallen from her eyes.

A rush of energy seemed to be coursing through Takeru's body, as he felt every single muscle tensing. Suddenly he seemed to be floating half a metre from the ground, purple and bluish lightning sparkling across the male body, englobing him, surounding the man with a zigzaggin chain. The man's skin was illuminated by the purplish beams, yet it changed into the human, lively cream colour. The boy's hair was being ruffled, as if a strong gust of wind played with the short strands. In another gust of wind, with light, bluish sparks, each hair, each strand began to recover its golden appearance.

Takeru landed on the ground. The boy was back himself, his Digi self, with that look of hopeful innocence, of kindness, that made him glow with the brightest of lights. The boy stared at himself with surprise, enjoying the fact that he was back, his green and yellow suit, his golden hair, his blue eyes, everything. The boy then looked back, and his features softenned upon landing on Mizumi. Deffinitely, it had been the love he felt for the woman what had saved him. Mizumi smiled back at him, and both began to approach in order of thanking each other propperly.

"Not so fast!" Kari yelled, plunging sidewards to hold a grip of a distracted Kenji, "This is not over, we will return, and when we do, you, miserable rats, will be history!" the woman said with a sneer, while Kenji shrieked fearfully.

It was so fast that nobody had seen it, but the well known figure of a black panther had landed over Kari, throwing her down along with poor Kenji, whose arm was tightly gripped by the Agent. The panther growled at Kari, its ruby eyes narrowing visibly, its fangs bared threateningly. The animal's claws were beggining to penetrate Kari's skin, in the form of a warning.

"Chiyo, honey, what are you doing?" Kari questioned with a stuttering voice.

"Let him go, mother." The panther growled.

"But you don't understand this, dear, you..." Kari was frightened as she kept talking, never letting Kenji go.

"No more lies!" Chiyo roared, "Let him go..." the panther warned again, the claws now releasing blood from the Agent's shoulders.

Kari, knowing this was serious, released her grip on Kenji's arm. The boy stood up and ran away, hiding next to his sister and Takeru. The panther kept breathing down Kari's neck with anger.

"Go, mother, and never dare to come back. Next time I won't be so benevolent." Chiyo warned, recoiling to allow Kari espace to leave.

"This will not end here!" Kari threatened, "Next time I'll make sure to extiguish your kind!"

Without thinking twice, the woman stood up and fled, entering the car and driving away at full speed. The car vanished into a cloud of smoke, since the poor engine was being pushed till its limit. Everyone knew that poor object was not bound to resist much longer before melting down, but it was not their problem. Now everyone's attention was turned towards Kenji.

"I'm sorry people, I didn't know..." the boy's cheeks flushed, and he looked so small and ashamed of his actions.

"Forget it, Onii-chan, people make mistakes." Mizumi said with a gentle smile.

"But I almost caused your destruction!" Kenji snapped frightened, staring at the group of Digis approaching him with smiles and gentleness glinting in every pair of eyes.

"So what? All of us had a tough beggining." Takeru explained gently, placing a hand on the boy's shoulder.

"You still have time to learn all about being a Digi." Chiyo said, back in human form, and staring at the boy through her seriousness, yet with kindness.

"I want to say, however, that although Kenji has demonstrated his valiant spirit, turning to our side to redimish his spirit and to fix his mistake, Mizumi has prooved to be braver than all of us, luring the Agents, facing her friends, and never hurting them during the fight." A terribly familiar voice said behind the younger Digis.

"That's a lie!" Takeru commented joyfully, rubbing his sore shoulder, and turning around with a smile.

"Mizzy..." Izzy was staring at her daughter, who was still backwards to him.

Without a warning, the woman turned around and leapt onto the man, fresh tears on her eyes. Yet, this time, this demonstration of sorrow was nothing but a blissful happiness. The two embraced for a long time, enjoying all that time they had lost.

"Why did you go?" Mizumi ventured first to break the intensity of the moment.

"Because I couldn't put my family in danger." Izzy said, pulling away and staring at the daughter that looked so much like him.

"I missed you, Daddy." Mizumi said with a smile, rubbing her eyes.

"I missed you too, Mizzy." Izzy said with a bright smile, "However, I think someone is waiting for you. We will have time to speak later." The man motioned at Takeru, staring with jealowsy at the attention Mizumi was giving her father.

The girl nodded lovingly at Izzy, and placed a gentle kiss on his cheek. Then, the woman walked towards the young Digi, who inhaled a deep gulp of breath and tensed. The girl looked funny at this behaviour, and had to restrain a laughter.

"Mizumi, I..." Takeru began, not really sure of where to begin.

"Call me Mizzy, Tk." Mizumi said winking at Takeru.

"You meant it?" the man inquired, looking incredulous still.

"Yes." Mizumi said with a loving, gentle smile.

The two spoke no more. No words need to be said, for an image is worth more than a thousand words. The man and the woman leaned into a hug, and their lips fused in a loving kiss, one that was cheered by the whole group of Digis.

Ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

The whole groups of Digis cheered at the couple as their lips melted into one single demonstration of love. A rain of rice fell upon the two Digis, dressed in beautiful wedding Kimonos. Mizumi laughed, trying to cover herself and the complicated hair style from the indiscriminated waste of food. Takeru threatened with a laugh about the consequences of his fury if they didn't stop throwing rice. The people simply began to throw larger amounts of rice at Takeru.

Birds were flying down to consume the free and easy meal being presented at them. Izzy kissed his daughter's cheek lovingly, while Matt shook Takeru's hand in a congratulating way, and hugged his younger brother. Yolei approached Mizumi and Takeru and congratulated both, almost crying at the vision of the two happily married.

"Get ready, people, I'm going to throw the bouquet." Mizumi advised, and the younger Digis looked animated, and readied themselves to catch it.

Turning to face the altar, that was nothing but a tree, Mizumi closed her eyes and threw the bouquet. The white roses flew across the air, forming an arch of falling petals and leaves. The girls jumped, a few men also jumped. Kenji leapt high up and tried to capture the flying item. A black panther emerged from nowhere and managed to briefly touch the white roses. Finally it landed in the hands of the most unexpected person. Ryu, who had been watching elsewhere uninterested.

"Wha? Hu? What am I going to do with this?" the man protested, glancing at the bouquet and holding it as if it was about to grow venomous fangs and bite him.

"Get ready, son, you're the next one getting married!" Matt proclaimed with a teasing laughter, while Mizumi and Takeru sniggered.

"That wouldn't be so difficult, seeing the 'enormous' amount of people gathered at this wedding!" Ryu muttered, glancing sideways and metting Mia's bright eyes and blushing cheeks.

Mizumi and Takeru hugged each other and proceeded to guide everyone towards the Hideout, where a party had been prepared. It wasn't like peace had been managed, and acceptation wasn't even visible at all. However, Mizumi, like the rest of the Digis, enjoyed this false sensation of normality from time to time.

The End.

AN: FINISHED! FINISHED! Did you like it? The ending was a little problematic, but that last sentence, I think it turned out ok, didn't it? Please, review and tell me what you think of it. Now I'll get to continued Origins in Darkness, and The Wiccan. ENJOY.

Oh, and Special THANK YOU! To my faithful readers.

Okdd- I don't know if you ever finished the story, but thank you for correcting me.

Whatisee- You added me as favourites, and in alerst. You are, deffinitely, my most FAITHFUL reader!

TogetherAgain- I know about the spelling, but my stupid comp doesn't have the spelling corrector, and English is not my native. Anyways, thanks a lot! Your review was the longest, and it pretty much explained a few things!

THANK YOU TO ALL!


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